Which to use
“race” and “rye” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #882
- “race” frequency rank
- #14,628
- “rye” frequency rank
- 15510
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | race | rye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. | A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder. |
Where the eye mixes race and rye
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. race (/ɹeɪs/) and rye (/ɹaɪ/) 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 15510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
race is recorded at frequency rank #882, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪs/. rye is at rank #14,628, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹaɪ/.
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 15510, this pair ranks #463,523 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of race vs rye
Shared letters: er. Private to "race": ac. Private to "rye": y.
"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rye" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- race ← arce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace