Which to use
“rough” and “ruth” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,518
- “rough” frequency rank
- #12,858
- “ruth” frequency rank
- 51376
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rough | ruth |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bordure non entretenue d’un terrain de golf. | Pitié. |
Where the eye mixes rough and ruth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between rough and ruth
A purely visual mix-up. rough (\ʁœf\) and ruth (\ɹuːθ\) 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 51376, 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\. ruth is at rank #12,858, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɹuːθ\.
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 51376, this pair ranks #155,488 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rough vs ruth
Shared letters: hru. Private to "rough": go. Private to "ruth": t.
"rough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "ruth" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "rough" and "ruth" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "rough" or "ruth"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "rough" and "ruth" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rough" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ruth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #155,488 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rough" and "ruth" 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 #155,488 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.