rusévsrussesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,728
“rusé” frequency rank
#2,334
“russes” frequency rank
31062
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rusé russes
Definition Qui a de la ruse, qui est plein de ruses. Pluriel de russe.

Where the eye mixes rusé and russes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
rusé
6 ch
russes

Why the eye confuses rusé with russes

A purely visual mix-up. rusé (\ʁy.ze\) and russes (\ʁys\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31062, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rusé is recorded at frequency rank #28,728, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁy.ze\. russes is at rank #2,334, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁys\.

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 31062, this pair ranks #306,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rusé vs russes

Shared letters: rsu. Private to "rusé": é. Private to "russes": e.

"rusé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "russes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • russesrrusses · rsuses · rusess · russess · russse · ursses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rusé" and "russes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁy.ze\ versus \ʁys\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rusé" vs "russes" - which ranks higher?
"russes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,334 in our French list, against #28,728 for "rusé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rusé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "russes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #306,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rusé" and "russes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rusé vs rustre". 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 #306,225 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