rapsvsrawTell them apart

Quick tell: raps is a verb, raw is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“raps” is a verb and “raw” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,016
“raps” frequency rank
#18,670
“raw” frequency rank
45686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raps raw
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs rap roh, ungekocht

Letter map: raps vs raw

Shared letters muted; letters that set raps and raw apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
raps
3 ch
raw

Role in the sentence - raps and raw

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: raps is averb and rawanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raps is recorded at frequency rank #27,016, classified as averb, pronounced […]. raw is at rank #18,670, tagged as anadj, pronounced [rɔ].

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 45686, this pair ranks #1,344,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raps vs raw

Shared letters: ar. Private to "raps": ps. Private to "raw": w.

"raps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "raw" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rapsarps · rapps · rapss · rasp · rpas · rraps

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "raps" and "raw" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raps" is a verb and "raw" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "raps" or "raw" show up more?
"raw" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,670 in our German list, against #27,016 for "raps". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "raps" vs "raw" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "raw" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,344,593 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raps" and "raw" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs raps". 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 #1,344,593 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