# rape vs rare

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### rape
*noun · IPA /ˈɹeɪ̯p/ · frequency rank #3,127*
The act of forcing sex upon another person without their consent or against their will; originally coitus forced by a man on a woman, but now generally any sex act forced by any person upon another person, regardless of gender; by extension, any non-consensual sex act forced on, perpetrated by, or forced to penetrate any being.

### rare
*adjective · IPA /ɹɛ/ · frequency rank #1,772*
Very uncommon; scarce.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/rape-vs-rare