robevsrouéWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: robe is a noun, roué is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“robe” is a noun and “roué” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,147
“robe” frequency rank
#46,421
“roué” frequency rank
48568
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature robe roué
Definition Vêtement long, en forme de fourreau plus ou moins ample, qui enveloppe le corps, tient aux épaules et a des manches ou des ouvertures pour les bras. Qualifie le bois du cerf, lorsqu’il est serré et peu ouvert.

Where the eye mixes robe and roué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
robe
4 ch
roué

Visual trap between robe and roué

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: robe is \ʁɔb\ while roué is \ʁwe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48568, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

robe is recorded at frequency rank #2,147, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔb\. roué is at rank #46,421, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁwe\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 48568, this pair ranks #177,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of robe vs roué

Shared letters: or. Private to "robe": be. Private to "roué": .

"robe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "roué" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roberboe · robbe · roeb · rrobe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "robe" and "roué" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "robe" is a noun and "roué" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "robe" vs "roué" - which ranks higher?
"robe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,147 in our French list, against #46,421 for "roué". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "robe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #177,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "robe" and "roué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "roué vs roya". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #177,883 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list