Which to use
“rough” and “route” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,518
- “rough” frequency rank
- #562
- “route” frequency rank
- 39080
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rough | route |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bordure non entretenue d’un terrain de golf. | Voie praticable par les voitures en dehors des agglomérations. |
Where the eye mixes rough and route
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses rough with route
A purely visual mix-up. rough (\ʁœf\) and route (\ʁut\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rough is recorded at frequency rank #38,518, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁœf\. route is at rank #562, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁut\.
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 39080, this pair ranks #250,654 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rough vs route
Shared letters: oru. Private to "rough": gh. Private to "route": et.
"rough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "route" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "rough" and "route" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "rough" vs "route" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "rough" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "route" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #250,654 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rough" and "route" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rog vs rough". 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 #250,654 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.