# ruff vs ruin

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### ruff
*noun · IPA /ɹʌf/ · frequency rank #27,272*
A circular frill or ruffle on a garment, especially a starched, fluted frill at the neck in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (1560s–1620s).

### ruin
*noun · IPA /ˈɹuː.ɪn/ · frequency rank #4,265*
The remains of a destroyed or dilapidated construction, such as a house or castle.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ruff-vs-ruin