Which to use
“racket” and “rakes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,933
- “racket” frequency rank
- #41,329
- “rakes” frequency rank
- 60262
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | racket | rakes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | plural of rake |
Where the eye mixes racket and rakes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: racket vs rakes
A purely visual mix-up. racket (/ˈɹækɪt/) and rakes (/ɹeɪks/) 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 60262, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
racket is recorded at frequency rank #18,933, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹækɪt/. rakes is at rank #41,329, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪks/.
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 60262, this pair ranks #101,221 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of racket vs rakes
Shared letters: aekr. Private to "racket": ct. Private to "rakes": s.
"racket" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "rakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "racket" for "rakes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "racket" or "rakes"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "racket" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rakes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #101,221 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "racket" and "rakes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rakes vs ravel". 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 #101,221 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.