Which to use
“race” and “roach” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #882
- “race” frequency rank
- #16,332
- “roach” frequency rank
- 17214
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | race | roach |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. | Certain members of the fish family Cyprinidae, including: |
Where the eye mixes race and roach
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: race vs roach
A purely visual mix-up. race (/ɹeɪs/) and roach (/ɹəʊtʃ/) 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 17214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
race is recorded at frequency rank #882, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪs/. roach is at rank #16,332, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹəʊtʃ/.
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 17214, this pair ranks #452,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of race vs roach
Shared letters: acr. Private to "race": e. Private to "roach": ho.
"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "roach" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "race" for "roach" ever safe?
Which is more common, "race" or "roach"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "race" and "roach" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "race" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "roach" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #452,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "race" and "roach" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Roa vs roach". 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 #452,876 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.