Which to use
“race” is a noun and “rag” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,154
- “race” frequency rank
- #37,740
- “rag” frequency rank
- 49894
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | race | rag |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rasse | 2. Person Singular Präsens Imperativ Aktiv des Verbs ragen |
Where the eye mixes race and rag
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: race is [ɹeɪs] while rag is [ʁaːk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49894, 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]. rag is at rank #37,740, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʁaːk].
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 49894, this pair ranks #1,194,366 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of race vs rag
Shared letters: ar. Private to "race": ce. Private to "rag": g.
"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rag" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- race ← arce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace