Which to use
“rouage” and “rough” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,518
- “rouage” frequency rank
- #38,518
- “rough” frequency rank
- 78036
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rouage | rough |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Élément de roue. | Bordure non entretenue d’un terrain de golf. |
Where the eye mixes rouage and rough
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: rouage vs rough
A purely visual mix-up. rouage (\ʁwaʒ\) and rough (\ʁœf\) 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 78036, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rouage is recorded at frequency rank #39,518, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁwaʒ\. rough is at rank #38,518, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁœf\.
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 78036, this pair ranks #26,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rouage vs rough
Shared letters: goru. Private to "rouage": ae. Private to "rough": h.
"rouage" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV · "rough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rouage" for "rough" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "rouage" or "rough" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "rouage" and "rough" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rouage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rough" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rouage" and "rough" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rouage 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 #26,797 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.