robinvsroiWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“robin” and “roi” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,983
“robin” frequency rank
#547
“roi” frequency rank
5530
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature robin roi
Definition Personne de peu, prétentieuse ou sotte. Titre porté par celui qui règne sur un peuple, un État, en particulier un État monarchique, et qui tient sa fonction de l’hérédité ou de l’élection ; celui qui est à la tête d’un royaume.

Where the eye mixes robin and roi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
robin
3 ch
roi

Why the eye confuses robin with roi

A purely visual mix-up. robin (\ʁɔ.bɛ̃\) and roi (\ʁwa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

robin is recorded at frequency rank #4,983, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔ.bɛ̃\. roi is at rank #547, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁwa\.

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 5530, this pair ranks #428,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of robin vs roi

Shared letters: ior. Private to "robin": bn. Private to "roi": -.

"robin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "roi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • robinorbin · rboin · robbin · robinn · robni · roibn · rrobin

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "robin" and "roi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɔ.bɛ̃\ versus \ʁwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "robin" vs "roi" - which ranks higher?
"roi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #547 in our French list, against #4,983 for "robin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "robin" and "roi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "robin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #428,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "robin" and "roi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robin vs rôtir". 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 #428,768 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