race
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "race", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "race" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "race" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
race is aEnglishnoun. It means: A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. Pronounced /ɹeɪs/. It ranks #882 in English word frequency. Often confused with re and RC.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | race |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹeɪs/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #882 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for race is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹeɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #882 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for race, with forms such as "arce", "racce", and "raec". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "re", "RC", "ran", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English race, partially from Old English rǣs (“a race, swift or violent running, rush, onset”), from Proto-West Germanic *rās; and partially from Old Norse rás (“a running, race”); both from Proto-Germanic *rēsō (“a course”), from Proto-Indo-Eur… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is race, spelled R-A-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective.
- 2Swift progress; rapid motion; an instance of moving or driving at high speed.
- 3A race condition; a bug or problem that occurs when two or more components attempt to use the same resource at the same time.
- 4A sequence of events; a progressive movement toward a goal.
- 5A fast-moving current of water.
- 6A water channel, especially one built to lead water to or from a point where it is utilised, such as that which powers a millwheel.
- 7A path that something or someone moves along.
- 8A guide or channel that a component of a machine moves along:
- 9A guide or channel that a component of a machine moves along:
- 10A keno gambling session.
Etymology
From Middle English race, partially from Old English rǣs (“a race, swift or violent running, rush, onset”), from Proto-West Germanic *rās; and partially from Old Norse rás (“a running, race”); both from Proto-Germanic *rēsō (“a course”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁s- (“to flow, rush”). Cognate with Middle Low German râs ("a strong current"; whence German Low German Raas (“mad rush, rage, fury”)), Dutch ras (“a strong whirling current”), Danish ræs, Norwegian and Swedish ras, Norwegian rås.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: arce,racce,raec,rcae,rrace
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for race
Misspelling Variants of "race"
Frequency rank: #882 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: