racesvsrocksWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,779
“races” frequency rank
#3,783
“rocks” frequency rank
7562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature races rocks
Definition plural of race plural of rock

Where the eye mixes races and rocks

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

5 ch
races
5 ch
rocks

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. races (/ˈɹeɪsɪz/) and rocks (/ɹɒks/) 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 7562, 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/. rocks is at rank #3,783, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɒks/.

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 7562, this pair ranks #506,584 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of races vs rocks

Shared letters: crs. Private to "races": ae. Private to "rocks": ko.

"races" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rocks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racesarces · racces · racess · racse · raecs · rcaes · rraces
  • rocksorcks · rcoks · roccks · rockks · rockss · rocsk · rokcs · rrocks

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "races" and "rocks" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɹeɪsɪz/ versus /ɹɒks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "races" or "rocks"?
"races" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,779 in our English list, against #3,783 for "rocks". 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