r'svsraysConfusable pair

Which to use

“r's” and “rays” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,861
“r's” frequency rank
#6,827
“rays” frequency rank
47688
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature r's rays
Definition plural of r plural of ray

Letter map: r's vs rays

Shared letters muted; letters that set r's and rays apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
r's
4 ch
rays

Spelling & dictionary notes on r's vs rays

r's and rays are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

r's is recorded at frequency rank #40,861, classified as anoun. rays is at rank #6,827, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪz/.

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 47688, this pair ranks #200,092 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of r's vs rays

Shared letters: rs. Private to "r's": -. Private to "rays": ay.

"r's" · 2 letters · shape CC  ·  "rays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raysarys · rasy · rayss · rayys · rrays · ryas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "r's" and "rays" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "r's" vs "rays" - which ranks higher?
"rays" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,827 in our English list, against #40,861 for "r's". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "r's" and "rays".

  • Full dictionary entry for "r's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,092 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "r's" and "rays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "r's vs Rua". 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 #200,092 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list