rôtirvsrougirWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,346
“rôtir” frequency rank
#19,395
“rougir” frequency rank
68741
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rôtir rougir
Definition Faire cuire de la viande à un feu vif, de manière que le dessus soit croustillant et que l’intérieur reste tendre. Rendre rouge ; peindre ou teindre en rouge.

Where the eye mixes rôtir and rougir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. rôtir runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against rougir's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
rôtir
6 ch
rougir

Visual trap between rôtir and rougir

A purely visual mix-up. rôtir (\ʁo.tiʁ\) and rougir ([ʁu.ʒiʁ]) 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 68741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rôtir is recorded at frequency rank #49,346, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁo.tiʁ\. rougir is at rank #19,395, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʁu.ʒiʁ].

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 68741, this pair ranks #57,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rôtir vs rougir

Shared letters: ir. Private to "rôtir": tô. Private to "rougir": gou.

"rôtir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rougir" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rougir ← orugir · roguir · rouggir · rougirr · rougri · rouigr · rrougir · ruogir

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rôtir" and "rougir" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁo.tiʁ\ versus [ʁu.ʒiʁ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rôtir" or "rougir"?
"rougir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,395 in our French list, against #49,346 for "rôtir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rôtir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rougir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rôtir" and "rougir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rotary 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 #57,903 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