Which to use
“gare” and “graze” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,641
- “gare” frequency rank
- #28,225
- “graze” frequency rank
- 75866
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gare | graze |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Coarse wool on the legs of sheep. | The act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing. |
Where the eye mixes gare and graze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gare runs 4 letters (CVCV) against graze's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses gare with graze
A purely visual mix-up. gare (/ɡɛə(ɹ)/) and graze (/ɡɹeɪz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gare is recorded at frequency rank #47,641, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɛə(ɹ)/. graze is at rank #28,225, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹeɪz/.
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 75866, this pair ranks #31,796 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gare vs graze
Shared letters: aegr. Private to "gare": -. Private to "graze": z.
"gare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "graze" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gare" and "graze" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "gare" vs "graze" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "gare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "graze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #31,796 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gare" and "graze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gare vs Gere". 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 #31,796 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.