racesvsriceWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,779
“races” frequency rank
#2,758
“rice” frequency rank
6537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature races rice
Definition plural of race Cereal plants, Oryza sativa of the grass family whose seeds are used as food.

Where the eye mixes races and rice

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
races
4 ch
rice

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. races (/ˈɹeɪsɪz/) and rice (/ɹaɪs/) 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 6537, 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/. rice is at rank #2,758, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹaɪs/.

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 6537, this pair ranks #511,028 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of races vs rice

Shared letters: cer. Private to "races": as. Private to "rice": i.

"races" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racesarces · racces · racess · racse · raecs · rcaes · rraces
  • riceirce · rcie · ricce · riec · rrice

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "races" and "rice" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɹeɪsɪz/ versus /ɹaɪs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "races" or "rice"?
"rice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,758 in our English list, against #3,779 for "races". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list