Which to use
“race” and “ray” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,098
- “race” frequency rank
- #4,886
- “ray” frequency rank
- 6984
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | race | ray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lignée ; ensemble des ascendants et des descendants d’une même famille. | Culture sur brûlis en Asie. |
Where the eye mixes race and ray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. race (\ʁas\) and ray (\ʁɛ\) 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 6984, 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\. ray is at rank #4,886, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ\.
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 6984, this pair ranks #424,611 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of race vs ray
Shared letters: ar. Private to "race": ce. Private to "ray": y.
"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "ray" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- race ← arce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace