rakes vs roles, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#41,329
“rakes” frequency rank: #3,391
“roles” frequency rank: 44720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	rakes	roles
Definition	plural of rake	plural of role

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set rakes and roles apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

rakes

5 ch

roles

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. rakes (/ɹeɪks/) and roles (/ɹəʊlz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rakes is recorded at frequency rank #41,329, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪks/. roles is at rank #3,391, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹəʊlz/.

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 44720, this pair ranks #227,982 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rakes vs roles

Shared letters: ers. Private to "rakes": ak. Private to "roles": lo.

"rakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "roles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

rakes ← arkes · raeks · rakess · rakkes · rakse · rkaes · rrakes
roles ← orles · rloes · roels · roless · rolles · rolse · rroles

Frequency comparison

rakes#41,329

roles#3,391

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rakes" and "roles" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ɹeɪks/ versus /ɹəʊlz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "rakes" or "roles"?

"roles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,391 in our English list, against #41,329 for "rakes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering rakes vs roles

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “rakes” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable