rastervsrestedTell them apart

Quick tell: raster is a noun, rested is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“raster” is a noun and “rested” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,719
“raster” frequency rank
#13,229
“rested” frequency rank
59948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raster rested
Definition A scanning pattern of parallel lines that form the display of an image projected on a cathode-ray tube of a television set or display screen. recovered

Where the eye mixes raster and rested

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
raster
6 ch
rested

Why the eye confuses raster with rested

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raster is /ˈɹæstɚ/ while rested is /ˈɹɛstɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raster is recorded at frequency rank #46,719, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹæstɚ/. rested is at rank #13,229, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɹɛstɪd/.

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 59948, this pair ranks #103,113 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of raster vs rested

Shared letters: erst. Private to "raster": a. Private to "rested": d.

"raster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "rested" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rasterarster · rasetr · rasster · rasterr · rastre · rastter · ratser · rraster
  • restedersted · resetd · ressted · restde · restedd · restted · retsed · rrested

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "raster" and "rested" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raster" is a noun and "rested" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "raster" or "rested" show up more?
"rested" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,229 in our English list, against #46,719 for "raster". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "raster" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rested" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,113 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raster" and "rested" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rafter vs raster". 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 #103,113 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