razedvsrazorWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: razed is a adjective, razor is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#37,652
“razed” frequency rank
#10,919
“razor” frequency rank
48571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature razed razor
Definition Slashed or striped in patterns. A keen-edged knife of peculiar shape, used in shaving the hair from the face or other parts of the body.

Letter map: razed vs razor

Shared letters muted; letters that set razed and razor apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
razed
5 ch
razor

Role in the sentence - razed and razor

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: razed is anadjective and razoranoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

razed is recorded at frequency rank #37,652, classified as anadj. razor is at rank #10,919, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹeɪzə/.

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 48571, this pair ranks #191,773 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of razed vs razor

Shared letters: arz. Private to "razed": de. Private to "razor": o.

"razed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "razor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • razedarzed · raezd · razde · razedd · razzed · rrazed · rzaed
  • razorarzor · raozr · razorr · razro · razzor · rrazor · rzaor

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "razed" and "razor" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "razed" is an adjective and "razor" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "razed" or "razor" show up more?
"razor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,919 in our English list, against #37,652 for "razed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "razed" and "razor". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "razed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "razor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,773 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "razed" and "razor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ramped vs razed". 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 #191,773 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