rajavsranaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,572
“raja” frequency rank
#44,865
“rana” frequency rank
81437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raja rana
Definition Rochen (Raja) der Erde nächster Stern; Sonne

Where the eye mixes raja and rana

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. raja and rana follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
raja
4 ch
rana

Visual trap between raja and rana

A purely visual mix-up. raja ([ˈraja]) and rana ([ɽáːnáː]) 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 - j in “raja” becomes n in “rana”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raja is recorded at frequency rank #36,572, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈraja]. rana is at rank #44,865, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɽáːnáː].

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 81437, this pair ranks #175,867 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of raja vs rana

Shared letters: ar. Private to "raja": j. Private to "rana": n.

"raja" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raja ← arja · raaj · rajja · rjaa · rraja
  • rana ← arna · raan · ranna · rnaa · rrana

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raja" for "rana" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈraja] versus [ɽáːnáː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "raja" or "rana" show up more?
"raja" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,572 in our German list, against #44,865 for "rana". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "raja" and "rana" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raja" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rana" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,867 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raja" and "rana" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rana vs RSA". 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 #175,867 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