Which to use
“rabies” and “rakes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,323
- “rabies” frequency rank
- #41,329
- “rakes” frequency rank
- 62652
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rabies | rakes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An infectious disease caused by species of Lyssavirus that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals and people, characterised by abnormal behaviour such as biting, excitement, aggressiveness, and dementia, followed by paralysis and death. | plural of rake |
Where the eye mixes rabies and rakes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. rabies runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against rakes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: rabies vs rakes
A purely visual mix-up. rabies (/ˈɹeɪ.biːz/) and rakes (/ɹeɪks/) 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 62652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rabies is recorded at frequency rank #21,323, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹeɪ.biːz/. rakes is at rank #41,329, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪks/.
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 62652, this pair ranks #87,302 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rabies vs rakes
Shared letters: aers. Private to "rabies": bi. Private to "rakes": k.
"rabies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "rakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "rabies" and "rakes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "rabies" vs "rakes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "rabies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rakes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,302 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rabies" and "rakes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rakes vs ravel". 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 #87,302 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.