Which to use
“race” and “rain” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #882
- “race” frequency rank
- #2,012
- “rain” frequency rank
- 2894
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | race | rain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. | Condensed water falling from a cloud. |
Where the eye mixes race and rain
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. race (/ɹeɪs/) and rain (/ˈɹeɪ̯n/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
race is recorded at frequency rank #882, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪs/. rain is at rank #2,012, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹeɪ̯n/.
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 2894, this pair ranks #523,724 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of race vs rain
Shared letters: ar. Private to "race": ce. Private to "rain": in.
"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rain" · 4 letters · shape CVVC