richvsrightWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,318
“rich” frequency rank
#115
“right” frequency rank
1433
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rich right
Definition Wealthy: having a lot of money and possessions. Designating the side of the body which is positioned to the east if one is facing north, the side on which the heart is not located in most humans. This arrow points to the reader's right: →

Where the eye mixes rich and right

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
rich
5 ch
right

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. rich (/ɹɪt͡ʃ/) and right (/ˈɹaɪt/) 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 1433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rich is recorded at frequency rank #1,318, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɹɪt͡ʃ/. right is at rank #115, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɹaɪt/.

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 1433, this pair ranks #527,436 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rich vs right

Shared letters: hir. Private to "rich": c. Private to "right": gt.

"rich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "right" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • richirch · rcih · ricch · richh · rihc · rrich
  • rightirght · rgiht · rigght · righht · rightt · rigth · rihgt · rright

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rich" and "right" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɹɪt͡ʃ/ versus /ˈɹaɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rich" or "right"?
"right" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #115 in our English list, against #1,318 for "rich". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "rich" and "right". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "right" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #527,436 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rich" and "right" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rich vs Riva". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list