rotulevsrouléWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,517
“rotule” frequency rank
#11,478
“roulé” frequency rank
50995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rotule roulé
Definition Petit os plat, triangulaire, à angles arrondis, placé en avant du genou, à l’endroit où le fémur s’articule avec le tibia. Gâteau consistant en une abaisse et une garniture enroulées sur elles-mêmes.

Where the eye mixes rotule and roulé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
rotule
5 ch
roulé

Look-alike desk: rotule vs roulé

A purely visual mix-up. rotule (\ʁɔ.tyl\) and roulé (\ʁu.le\) 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 50995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rotule is recorded at frequency rank #39,517, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔ.tyl\. roulé is at rank #11,478, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁu.le\.

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 50995, this pair ranks #158,363 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rotule vs roulé

Shared letters: loru. Private to "rotule": et. Private to "roulé": é.

"rotule" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "roulé" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rotuleortule · rotlue · rottule · rotuel · rotulle · routle · rrotule · rtoule

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rotule" and "roulé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɔ.tyl\ versus \ʁu.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rotule" vs "roulé" - which ranks higher?
"roulé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,478 in our French list, against #39,517 for "rotule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rotule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roulé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,363 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rotule" and "roulé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rotule vs rouble". 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 #158,363 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