Which to use
“race” and “rate” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #882
- “race” frequency rank
- #752
- “rate” frequency rank
- 1634
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | race | rate |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. | The worth of something; value. |
Where the eye mixes race and rate
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. race (/ɹeɪs/) and rate (/ɹeɪt/) 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 a single letter - c in “race” becomes t in “rate”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1634, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
race is recorded at frequency rank #882, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪs/. rate is at rank #752, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪt/.
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 1634, this pair ranks #527,014 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of race vs rate
Shared letters: aer. Private to "race": c. Private to "rate": t.
"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV