racesvsracketTell them apart

Which to use

“races” and “racket” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,779
“races” frequency rank
#18,933
“racket” frequency rank
22712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature races racket
Definition plural of race An implement with a handle connected to a round frame strung with wire, sinew, or plastic cords, and used to hit a ball, such as in tennis or a shuttlecock in badminton.

Where the eye mixes races and racket

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
races
6 ch
racket

Why the eye confuses races with racket

A purely visual mix-up. races (/ˈɹeɪsɪz/) and racket (/ˈɹækɪt/) 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 22712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

races is recorded at frequency rank #3,779, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹeɪsɪz/. racket is at rank #18,933, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹækɪt/.

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 22712, this pair ranks #414,563 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of races vs racket

Shared letters: acer. Private to "races": s. Private to "racket": kt.

"races" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "racket" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racesarces · racces · racess · racse · raecs · rcaes · rraces
  • racketarcket · raccket · racekt · rackett · rackket · rackte · rakcet · rcaket

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "races" and "racket" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɹeɪsɪz/ versus /ˈɹækɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "races" or "racket"?
"races" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,779 in our English list, against #18,933 for "racket". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "races" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "racket" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #414,563 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "races" and "racket" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "racket vs Rickey". 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 #414,563 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list