racevsRaumWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,154
“race” frequency rank
#675
“Raum” frequency rank
12829
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature race Raum
Definition Rasse sich in drei Dimensionen erstreckende geometrische Größe

Where the eye mixes race and Raum

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
race
4 ch
Raum

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. race ([ɹeɪs]) and Raum ([ʁaʊ̯m]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12829, 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]. Raum is at rank #675, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʁaʊ̯m].

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 12829, this pair ranks #1,961,801 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of race vs Raum

Shared letters: ar. Private to "race": ce. Private to "Raum": mu.

"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Raum" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racearce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace
  • Raumarum · ramu · raumm · rraum · ruam

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "race" and "Raum" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ɹeɪs] versus [ʁaʊ̯m]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "race" or "Raum"?
"Raum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #675 in our German list, against #12,154 for "race". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "race" and "Raum". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "race" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Raum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,961,801 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "race" and "Raum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "race 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list