roodvsrowWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,460
“rood” frequency rank
#2,498
“row” frequency rank
50958
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rood row
Definition A crucifix, cross, especially in a church. A line of objects, often regularly spaced, such as seats in a theatre, vegetable plants in a garden, etc.

Where the eye mixes rood and row

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
rood
3 ch
row

Look-alike desk: rood vs row

A purely visual mix-up. rood (/ɹuːd/) and row (/ˈɹəʊ/) 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 50958, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rood is recorded at frequency rank #48,460, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹuːd/. row is at rank #2,498, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹəʊ/.

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 50958, this pair ranks #169,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rood vs row

Shared letters: or. Private to "rood": d. Private to "row": w.

"rood" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "row" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roodorod · rodo · roodd · rrood

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rood" and "row" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɹuːd/ versus /ˈɹəʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rood" or "row"?
"row" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,498 in our English list, against #48,460 for "rood". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rood" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "row" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rood" and "row" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rood vs rooks". 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 #169,623 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