Raccoon or racoon?
raccoon is a noun meaning “An omnivorous, nocturnal mammal native to the Americas, of the genus Procyon…”; racoon is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of raccoon”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) raccoon is about 11 times as common as racoon.
What is the difference between raccoon and racoon?
| raccoon | racoon | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | An omnivorous, nocturnal mammal native to the Americas, of the genus Procyon, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking… The common raccoon (Procyon lotor) | Alternative spelling of raccoon |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | raccoons | racoons |
| Pronunciation | /ɹəˈkuːn/ /ɹæˈkun/ /ɹəˈkun/ | not recorded |
| In writing | 1.9 times per million words | about once in every 6 million words |
Sources: raccoon and racoon in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of raccoon and racoon
raccoon
- 1
An omnivorous, nocturnal mammal native to the Americas, of the genus Procyon, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking around the eyes and a striped tail
- 2
The common raccoon (Procyon lotor)
- 3
Any mammal of the subfamily Procyoninae, a procyonine
- 4
Any mammal of the family Procyonidae, a procyonid
- 5
proscribedAny mammal superficially resembling a raccoon, such as a raccoon dog
racoon
- 1
Alternative spelling of raccoon
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, raccoon or racoon?
raccoon appears 1.9 times per million words; racoon about once in every 6 million words.
raccoon 1.9 times per million wordsracoon about once in every 6 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search raccoon vs racoon?
“raccoon vs racoon” is searched about 170 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“racoon vs raccoon”, “raccoon or racoon”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.