Which to use
“robot” and “root” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,615
- “robot” frequency rank
- #26,161
- “root” frequency rank
- 30776
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | robot | root |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Machine de forme humaine. | Compte administrateur sur Unix. |
Where the eye mixes robot and root
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses robot with root
A purely visual mix-up. robot (\ʁɔ.bo\) and root (\ʁut\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30776, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
robot is recorded at frequency rank #4,615, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔ.bo\. root is at rank #26,161, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁut\.
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 30776, this pair ranks #308,062 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of robot vs root
Shared letters: ort. Private to "robot": b. Private to "root": -.
"robot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "root" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "robot" for "root" ever safe?
Which is more common, "robot" or "root"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "robot" and "root" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "robot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "root" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #308,062 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "robot" and "root" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "root 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 #308,062 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.