Which to use
“rôle” is a noun and “roux” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #606
- “rôle” frequency rank
- #5,076
- “roux” frequency rank
- 5682
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rôle | roux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rouleau de papier, de parchemin, sur lequel on écrivait des actes, des titres. | D’une couleur proche de l’orange, souvent en parlant des cheveux. #AD4F09 |
Where the eye mixes rôle and roux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses rôle with roux
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rôle is \ʁol\ while roux is \ʁu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 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 5682, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rôle is recorded at frequency rank #606, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁol\. roux is at rank #5,076, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁu\.
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 5682, this pair ranks #428,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of rôle vs roux
Shared letters: r. Private to "rôle": elô. Private to "roux": oux.
"rôle" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "roux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- roux ← orux · rouxx · roxu · rroux · ruox
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "rôle" and "roux" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "rôle" or "roux" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "rôle" and "roux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rôle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "roux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #428,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rôle" and "roux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "roux 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 #428,344 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.