Which to use
“raid” and “ray” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,253
- “raid” frequency rank
- #2,087
- “ray” frequency rank
- 7340
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raid | ray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A quick hostile or predatory incursion or invasion in a battle. | A beam of light or radiation. |
Where the eye mixes raid and ray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses raid with ray
A purely visual mix-up. raid (/ɹeɪd/) 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 7340, 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/. 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 7340, this pair ranks #507,544 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of raid vs ray
Shared letters: ar. Private to "raid": di. Private to "ray": y.
"raid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "ray" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- raid ← radi · raidd · riad · rraid
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "raid" and "ray" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "raid" or "ray" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "raid" and "ray" 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 "ray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #507,544 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raid" and "ray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raid vs rood". 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 #507,544 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.