reevsreitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,193
“ree” frequency rank
#45,043
“reit” frequency rank
82236
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ree reit
Definition Alternative form of rei (“Portuguese real”). sedge; seaweed

Where the eye mixes ree and reit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ree runs 3 letters (CVV) against reit's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
ree
4 ch
reit

Look-alike desk: ree vs reit

A purely visual mix-up. ree (/ɹiː/) and reit (/ɹiːt/) 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 82236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ree is recorded at frequency rank #37,193, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹiː/. reit is at rank #45,043, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹiːt/.

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 82236, this pair ranks #16,109 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ree vs reit

Shared letters: er. Private to "ree": -. Private to "reit": it.

"ree" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "reit" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reit ← erit · reitt · reti · rreit

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ree" for "reit" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɹiː/ versus /ɹiːt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ree" vs "reit" - which ranks higher?
"ree" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,193 in our English list, against #45,043 for "reit". 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 "ree" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,109 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ree" and "reit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reit vs Revis". 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 #16,109 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