RasurvsrauWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Rasur is a noun, rau is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Rasur” is a noun and “rau” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,159
“Rasur” frequency rank
#13,465
“rau” frequency rank
53624
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Rasur rau
Definition teilweise oder vollständige Entfernung der Körperbehaarung (vor allem des Bartes) durch Rasieren nicht glatt, mit unebener, unbearbeiteter Oberfläche, Beschaffenheit

Where the eye mixes Rasur and rau

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Rasur runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against rau's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Rasur
3 ch
rau

Why the eye confuses Rasur with rau

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Rasur is [ʁaˈzuːɐ̯] while rau is [ʁaʊ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Rasur is recorded at frequency rank #40,159, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʁaˈzuːɐ̯]. rau is at rank #13,465, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ʁaʊ̯].

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 53624, this pair ranks #1,050,774 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Rasur vs rau

Shared letters: aru. Private to "Rasur": s. Private to "rau": -.

"Rasur" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Rasur ← arsur · rasru · rassur · rasurr · rausr · rrasur · rsaur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Rasur" and "rau" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Rasur" is a noun and "rau" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Rasur" or "rau"?
"rau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,465 in our German list, against #40,159 for "Rasur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Rasur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,050,774 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Rasur" and "rau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rasur vs rauer". 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 #1,050,774 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