rangevsrungTell them apart

Which to use

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

#793
“range” frequency rank
#22,497
“rung” frequency rank
23290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature range rung
Definition A line or series of mountains, buildings, etc. A crosspiece forming a step of a ladder; a round.

Where the eye mixes range and rung

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

5 ch
range
4 ch
rung

Look-alike desk: range vs rung

A purely visual mix-up. range (/ɹeɪnd͡ʒ/) and rung (/ɹʌŋ/) 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 23290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

range is recorded at frequency rank #793, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪnd͡ʒ/. rung is at rank #22,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹʌŋ/.

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 23290, this pair ranks #410,415 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of range vs rung

Shared letters: gnr. Private to "range": ae. Private to "rung": u.

"range" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "rung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rangearnge · ragne · raneg · rangge · rannge · rnage · rrange
  • rungrnug · rrung · rugn · rungg · runng · urng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "range" and "rung" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɹeɪnd͡ʒ/ versus /ɹʌŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "range" or "rung"?
"range" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #793 in our English list, against #22,497 for "rung". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "range" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,415 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "range" and "rung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rua vs rung". 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 #410,415 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