rotulevsrouléeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#39,517
“rotule” frequency rank
#35,701
“roulée” frequency rank
75218
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rotule roulée
Definition Petit os plat, triangulaire, à angles arrondis, placé en avant du genou, à l’endroit où le fémur s’articule avec le tibia. Coups donnés à quelqu’un.

Where the eye mixes rotule and roulée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. rotule (CVCVCV) and roulée (CVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
rotule
6 ch
roulée

Visual trap between rotule and roulée

A purely visual mix-up. rotule (\ʁɔ.tyl\) and roulée (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75218, 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\. roulée is at rank #35,701, 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 75218, this pair ranks #34,740 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rotule vs roulée

Shared letters: eloru. Private to "rotule": t. Private to "roulée": é.

"rotule" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "roulée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rotule ← ortule · rotlue · rottule · rotuel · rotulle · routle · rrotule · rtoule

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rotule" and "roulée" 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.
Which is more common, "rotule" or "roulée"?
"roulée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,701 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "rotule" and "roulée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rotule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roulée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,740 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rotule" and "roulée" 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 #34,740 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