Consulting Dictionarycom I could find publically accepted by only one authority  WordNet whereas rle is accepted by Dictionarycom Unabridged v  The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition the Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary wherein it is listed as the primary spelling The American Heritage Stedmans Medical Dictionary and MerriamWebsters Medical Dictionary therefore I dont think that theyre comparable Rle is the original spelling and remains perfectly standard to this day Diacritical and other supraASCII spellings are often omitted in typed text but that can in a great many perhaps the majority of situations be explained by the effort that must be invested in order to insert the necessary characters using a basic keyboard Whether you believe as I  and  do that the rle spelling ought to be retained or you believe as  and  do that the role spelling ought to be used instead Im sure we can all agree that consistency is necessary the word role occurs once later in the article  Im going to change it to rle Whether role or rle is chosen both ought to match