rigvsrightWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,850
“rig” frequency rank
#115
“right” frequency rank
8965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rig right
Definition The rigging of a sailing ship or other such craft. 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 rig and right

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

3 ch
rig
5 ch
right

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rig is /ɹɪɡ/ while right is /ˈɹaɪt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “rig” sits inside “right”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rig is recorded at frequency rank #8,850, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪɡ/. 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 8965, this pair ranks #499,782 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rig vs right

Shared letters: gir. Private to "rig": -. Private to "right": ht.

"rig" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "right" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rightirght · rgiht · rigght · righht · rightt · rigth · rihgt · rright

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rig" and "right" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rig" is a noun and "right" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rig" or "right"?
"right" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #115 in our English list, against #8,850 for "rig". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list