raise
/ɹeɪz/verb, noun
raise is spelled R-A-I-S-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 56 times per million words in written English, the 1,822nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “raise vs rise” about 880 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, raise means “To cause to rise; to lift or elevate” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in raise?
| Letters | 5: R-A-I-S-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 56 times per million words; the 1,822nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is raise?
Raise appears 56 times per million words in written English, the 1,822nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce raise?
- /ɹeɪz/
Raise has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-raise.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with raise
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: rase, raze (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: pay raise.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with raise?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as raise.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: arise, serai.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of raise
- raises present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- raising participle, present
- raised participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does raise mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To cause to rise; to lift or elevate.
to raise your hand if you want to say something; to raise your walking stick to defend yourself
- 2
To form by the accumulation of materials or constituent parts; to build up; to erect.
to raise a wall, or a heap of stones
- 3
To cause something to come to the surface of water.
The ship was raised ten years after it had sunk.
- 4
To cause (the land or any other object) to seem higher by drawing nearer to it.
to raise Sandy Hook light
- 5
To make (bread, etc.) light, as by yeast or leaven.
- 6
To cause (a dead person) to live again; to resurrect.
The magic spell raised the dead from their graves!
- 7
To remove or break up (a blockade), either by withdrawing the ships or forces employed in enforcing it, or by driving them away or dispersing them.
- 8
To relinquish (a siege), or cause this to be done.
noun
- 1
USEllipsis of pay raise (“an increase in wages or salary”).
The boss gave me a raise.
- 2
A shot in which the delivered stone bumps another stone forward.
- 3
A bet that increases the previous bet.
- 4
A shaft or a winze that is dug from below, for purposes such as ventilation, local extraction of ore, or exploration.
- 5
A shoulder exercise in which the arms are elevated against resistance.
- 6
A cairn or pile of stones.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Raise in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | élever, lever, ériger , ressusciter , augmentation |
| German | heben , sich erheben lassen, ins Leben zurückbringen, wiederbeleben , erhöhen, hochsetzen |
| Portuguese | levantar, alçar , aumentar, fazer crescer , arrecadar , criar |
| Spanish | levantar, alzar, ercer , juntar , criar , plantear |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does raise come from?
From Middle English reysen, raisen, reisen, from Old Norse reisa (“to raise”), from Proto-Germanic *raisijaną, *raizijaną (“to raise”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *rīsaną (“to rise”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rey- (“to rise, arise”). According to Kroonen (2013), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to stir, rise”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).