Which to use
“rays” is a noun and “Rees” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,153
- “rays” frequency rank
- #40,787
- “Rees” frequency rank
- 77940
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rays | Rees |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plural des Substantivs ray | eine Stadt in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Deutschland |
Where the eye mixes rays and Rees
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between rays and Rees
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rays is [ɹeɪz] while Rees is [ʁeːs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rays is recorded at frequency rank #37,153, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɹeɪz]. Rees is at rank #40,787, tagged as aname, pronounced [ʁeːs].
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 77940, this pair ranks #249,421 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rays vs Rees
Shared letters: rs. Private to "rays": ay. Private to "Rees": e.
"rays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "Rees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "rays" and "Rees" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "rays" vs "Rees" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "rays" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Rees" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #249,421 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rays" and "Rees" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rees vs Remus". 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 #249,421 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.