raidvsrathWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,253
“raid” frequency rank
#40,411
“rath” frequency rank
45664
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raid rath
Definition A quick hostile or predatory incursion or invasion in a battle. A walled enclosure, especially in Ireland; a ringfort built sometime between the Iron Age and the Viking Age.

Where the eye mixes raid and rath

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
raid
4 ch
rath

Look-alike desk: raid vs rath

A purely visual mix-up. raid (/ɹeɪd/) and rath (/ɹɑːθ/) 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 45664, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raid is recorded at frequency rank #5,253, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪd/. rath is at rank #40,411, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɑːθ/.

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 45664, this pair ranks #219,083 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raid vs rath

Shared letters: ar. Private to "raid": di. Private to "rath": ht.

"raid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "rath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raidradi · raidd · riad · rraid
  • ratharth · raht · rathh · ratth · rrath · rtah

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raid" for "rath" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɹeɪd/ versus /ɹɑːθ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "raid" vs "rath" - which ranks higher?
"raid" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,253 in our English list, against #40,411 for "rath". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "raid" and "rath" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rath" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #219,083 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raid" and "rath" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rapp vs rath". 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 #219,083 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