Which to use
“roulis” and “rubis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,150
- “roulis” frequency rank
- #19,143
- “rubis” frequency rank
- 63293
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | roulis | rubis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Balancement d’un navire qui roule, qui penche alternativement de droite à gauche et de gauche à droite. | Pierre précieuse très dure, transparente et d’un rouge plus ou moins vif. Sa formule chimique est Al₂O₃:Cr. |
Where the eye mixes roulis and rubis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses roulis with rubis
A purely visual mix-up. roulis (\ʁu.li\) and rubis (\ʁy.bi\) 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 63293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
roulis is recorded at frequency rank #44,150, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁu.li\. rubis is at rank #19,143, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁy.bi\.
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 63293, this pair ranks #82,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of roulis vs rubis
Shared letters: irsu. Private to "roulis": lo. Private to "rubis": b.
"roulis" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "rubis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "roulis" for "rubis" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "roulis" or "rubis" show up more?
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 "roulis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rubis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "roulis" and "rubis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rotules vs roulis". 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 #82,716 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.