rastervsroosterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,719
“raster” frequency rank
#19,441
“rooster” frequency rank
66160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raster rooster
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. A male domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) or other gallinaceous bird.

Where the eye mixes raster and rooster

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
raster
7 ch
rooster

Visual trap between raster and rooster

A purely visual mix-up. raster (/ˈɹæstɚ/) and rooster (/ˈɹuːstə/) 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 66160, 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/. rooster is at rank #19,441, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹuːstə/.

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 66160, this pair ranks #69,312 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of raster vs rooster

Shared letters: erst. Private to "raster": a. Private to "rooster": o.

"raster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "rooster" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rasterarster · rasetr · rasster · rasterr · rastre · rastter · ratser · rraster
  • roosteroroster · roosetr · roosster · roosterr · roostre · roostter · rootser · rosoter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "raster" and "rooster" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɹæstɚ/ versus /ˈɹuːstə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "raster" vs "rooster" - which ranks higher?
"rooster" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,441 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raster" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rooster" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,312 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raster" and "rooster" 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 #69,312 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