Which to use
“race” and “rats” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #882
- “race” frequency rank
- #6,612
- “rats” frequency rank
- 7494
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | race | rats |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. | plural of rat |
Where the eye mixes race and rats
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. race (/ɹeɪs/) and rats (/ɹæts/) 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 7494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
race is recorded at frequency rank #882, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪs/. rats is at rank #6,612, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹæts/.
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 7494, this pair ranks #506,859 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of race vs rats
Shared letters: ar. Private to "race": ce. Private to "rats": st.
"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rats" · 4 letters · shape CVCC