rainsvsrinkWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,085
“rains” frequency rank
#17,019
“rink” frequency rank
26104
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rains rink
Definition plural of rain A man, especially a warrior or hero.

Where the eye mixes rains and rink

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
rains
4 ch
rink

Visual trap between rains and rink

A purely visual mix-up. rains (/ɹeɪnz/) and rink (/ɹɪŋk/) 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 26104, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rains is recorded at frequency rank #9,085, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪnz/. rink is at rank #17,019, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪŋk/.

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 26104, this pair ranks #389,199 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rains vs rink

Shared letters: inr. Private to "rains": as. Private to "rink": k.

"rains" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "rink" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rainsarins · rainns · rainss · raisn · ranis · rians · rrains
  • rinkirnk · rikn · rinkk · rinnk · rnik · rrink

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rains" for "rink" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɹeɪnz/ versus /ɹɪŋk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rains" vs "rink" - which ranks higher?
"rains" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,085 in our English list, against #17,019 for "rink". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rains" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,199 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rains" and "rink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rink vs Rong". 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 #389,199 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