Which to use
“raft” and “ray” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,892
- “raft” frequency rank
- #2,087
- “ray” frequency rank
- 17979
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raft | ray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A flat-bottomed craft able to float and drift on water, used for transport or as a waterborne platform. | A beam of light or radiation. |
Where the eye mixes raft and ray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: raft vs ray
A purely visual mix-up. raft (/ɹɑːft/) and ray (/ɹeɪ/) 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 17979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raft is recorded at frequency rank #15,892, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹɑːft/. ray is at rank #2,087, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪ/.
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 17979, this pair ranks #447,931 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of raft vs ray
Shared letters: ar. Private to "raft": ft. Private to "ray": y.
"raft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "ray" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- raft ← arft · rafft · raftt · ratf · rfat · rraft
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "raft" and "ray" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "raft" vs "ray" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "raft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #447,931 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raft" and "ray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raft vs rafter". 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 #447,931 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.