racevsratWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“race” and “rat” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,098
“race” frequency rank
#8,021
“rat” frequency rank
10119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature race rat
Definition Lignée ; ensemble des ascendants et des descendants d’une même famille. Rongeur à museau pointu, à pattes courtes et à queue longue, qui ronge et mange les grains, la paille, etc.

Where the eye mixes race and rat

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

4 ch
race
3 ch
rat

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. race (\ʁas\) and rat (\ʁa\) 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 10119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

race is recorded at frequency rank #2,098, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁas\. rat is at rank #8,021, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa\.

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 10119, this pair ranks #414,145 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of race vs rat

Shared letters: ar. Private to "race": ce. Private to "rat": t.

"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rat" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racearce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "race" and "rat" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁas\ versus \ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "race" or "rat"?
"race" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,098 in our French list, against #8,021 for "rat". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list