Rain or reign?
rain is a noun meaning “Condensed water falling from a cloud”; reign is a noun meaning “The exercise of sovereign power”. They sound the same (/ɹeɪn/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) rain is about 4.4 times as common as reign.
What is the difference between rain and reign?
| rain | reign | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | Condensed water falling from a cloud Any matter moving or falling, usually through air, and especially if liquid or otherwise figuratively identifiable with raindrops To have rain fall from the sky | The exercise of sovereign power The period during which a monarch rules To exercise sovereign power, to rule as a monarch |
| Example | We've been having a lot of rain lately | England prospered under Elizabeth I's reign |
| Forms | rains | reigns |
| Pronunciation | /ɹeɪn/ /ɹæɪn/ /ɾen/ | /ɹeɪ̯n/ /ɹæɪ̯n/ |
| In writing | 51 times per million words | 12 times per million words |
Sources: rain and reign in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of rain and reign
rain
- 1
Condensed water falling from a cloud
We've been having a lot of rain lately
- 2
To have rain fall from the sky
Judging by the black cloud, it will rain later today
- 3
Any matter moving or falling, usually through air, and especially if liquid or otherwise figuratively identifiable with raindrops
- 4
To fall as or like rain
Tears rained from her eyes
- 5
An instance of particles or larger pieces of matter moving or falling through air
A rain of mortar fire fell on our trenches
- 6
To issue (something) in large quantities
The boxer rained punches on his opponent's head
reign
- 1
The exercise of sovereign power
England prospered under Elizabeth I's reign
- 2
To exercise sovereign power, to rule as a monarch
He reigned in an autocratic manner
- 3
The period during which a monarch rules
The reign of Victoria was a long one
- 4
To be the winner of the most recent iteration of a competition
- 5
The territory or sphere over which a kingdom; empire; realm; dominion, etc. is ruled
- 6
To be a dominant quality of a place or situation; to prevail, predominate, rule
Silence reigned
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, rain or reign?
rain appears 51 times per million words; reign 12 times per million words.
rain 51 times per million wordsreign 12 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search rain vs reign?
“rain vs reign” is searched about 90 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“reign vs rain”, “rain or reign”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.