raze

/ɹeɪz/verb, noun

raze is spelled R-A-Z-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 51,738th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “raise vs raze” about 70 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, raze means “To level or tear down (a building, a town, etc.) to the ground; to demolish” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in raze?

Letters	4: R-A-Z-E
Syllables	1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	about once in every 3 million words; the 51,738th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Pairs people search	raise vs raze
Sounds like	raise rase
Rhymes with	praise phrase mayonnaise amaze more

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 raze?

Raze appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 51,738th most frequent word form in the list.

raze0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce raze?

US /ɹeɪz/
Australia /ɹæɪz/

Raze 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, En-au-raze.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with raze

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

raise vs raze70 G

Sounds like: raise, rase (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: race.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with raze?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as raze from its last stressed vowel (/eɪz/):

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 raze

razes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
razing participle, present
razed participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
race
rase

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does raze mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

1
To level or tear down (a building, a town, etc.) to the ground; to demolish.
2
To completely remove (someone or something), especially from a place, a situation, etc.; also, to remove from existence; to destroy, to obliterate.
3
To erase (a record, text, etc.), originally by scraping; to rub out, to scratch out.
4
To wound (someone or part of their body) superficially; to graze.
5
obsoleteTo alter (a document) by erasing parts of it.
6
obsoleteTo carve (a line, mark, etc.) into something; to incise, to inscribe; also, to carve lines, marks, etc., into (something); to engrave.
7
obsoleteTo remove (something) by scraping; also, to cut or shave (something) off.
8
obsoleteTo rub lightly along the surface of (something); brush against, to graze.

noun

1
A swinging fence in a watercourse to prevent cattle passing through.
2
obsoleteA slight wound; a scratch; also, a cut, a slit.