rakevsrasTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,699
“rake” frequency rank
#22,193
“ras” frequency rank
39892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rake ras
Definition A garden tool with a row of pointed teeth fixed to a long handle, used for collecting debris, grass, etc., for flattening the ground, or for loosening soil; also, a similar wheel-mounted tool drawn by a horse or a tractor. An Ethiopian king or prince.

Letter map: rake vs ras

Shared letters muted; letters that set rake and ras apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
rake
3 ch
ras

Pair insight - rake / ras

rake and ras are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rake is recorded at frequency rank #17,699, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪk/. ras is at rank #22,193, tagged as anoun.

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 39892, this pair ranks #272,533 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rake vs ras

Shared letters: ar. Private to "rake": ek. Private to "ras": s.

"rake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ras" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rakearke · raek · rakke · rkae · rrake

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rake" for "ras" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "rake" or "ras" show up more?
"rake" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,699 in our English list, against #22,193 for "ras". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "rake" and "ras". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #272,533 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rake" and "ras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ras vs Rua". 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 #272,533 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