racevsRadeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“race” and “Rade” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,154
“race” frequency rank
#43,432
“Rade” frequency rank
55586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature race Rade
Definition Rasse wilde Ackerpflanze

Where the eye mixes race and Rade

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

4 ch
race
4 ch
Rade

Visual trap between race and Rade

A purely visual mix-up. race ([ɹeɪs]) and Rade ([ˈʁaːdə]) 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 a single letter - c in “race” becomes d in “Rade”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

race is recorded at frequency rank #12,154, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɹeɪs]. Rade is at rank #43,432, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈʁaːdə].

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 55586, this pair ranks #973,842 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of race vs Rade

Shared letters: aer. Private to "race": c. Private to "Rade": d.

"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Rade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racearce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace
  • Radearde · radde · rdae · rrade

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "race" and "Rade" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ɹeɪs] versus [ˈʁaːdə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "race" vs "Rade" - which ranks higher?
"race" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,154 in our German list, against #43,432 for "Rade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "race" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Rade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #973,842 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "race" and "Rade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rade vs Ramen". 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 #973,842 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list