Which to use
“rôles” and “rotules” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,622
- “rôles” frequency rank
- #47,007
- “rotules” frequency rank
- 51629
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rôles | rotules |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de rôle. | Pluriel de rotule. |
Where the eye mixes rôles and rotules
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. rôles runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against rotules's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses rôles with rotules
A purely visual mix-up. rôles (\ʁol\) and rotules (\ʁɔ.tyl\) 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 51629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rôles is recorded at frequency rank #4,622, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁol\. rotules is at rank #47,007, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔ.tyl\.
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 51629, this pair ranks #153,607 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rôles vs rotules
Shared letters: elrs. Private to "rôles": ô. Private to "rotules": otu.
"rôles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "rotules" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- rotules ← ortules · rotlues · rottules · rotuels · rotuless · rotulles · rotulse · routles
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rôles" for "rotules" ever safe?
Which is more common, "rôles" or "rotules"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "rôles" and "rotules" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rôles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rotules" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,607 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rôles" and "rotules" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "roques vs rotules". 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 #153,607 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.