raisevsraisedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,836
“raise” frequency rank
#1,534
“raised” frequency rank
3370
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raise raised
Definition To cause to rise; to lift or elevate. simple past and past participle of raise

Where the eye mixes raise and raised

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
raise
6 ch
raised

Look-alike desk: raise vs raised

A purely visual mix-up. raise (/ɹeɪz/) and raised (/ɹeɪzd/) 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 extra letter(s) - “raise” sits inside “raised”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3370, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raise is recorded at frequency rank #1,836, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹeɪz/. raised is at rank #1,534, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹeɪzd/.

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 3370, this pair ranks #522,317 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of raise vs raised

Shared letters: aeirs. Private to "raise": -. Private to "raised": d.

"raise" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "raised" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raiseraies · raisse · rasie · riase · rraise
  • raisedarised · raiesd · raisde · raisedd · raissed · rasied · riased · rraised

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "raise" and "raised" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɹeɪz/ versus /ɹeɪzd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "raise" or "raised" show up more?
"raised" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,534 in our English list, against #1,836 for "raise". 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 "raise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "raised" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #522,317 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raise" and "raised" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raised vs roused". 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 #522,317 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