racevsrazWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,098
“race” frequency rank
#21,750
“raz” frequency rank
23848
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature race raz
Definition Lignée ; ensemble des ascendants et des descendants d’une même famille. Courant marin violent qui se fait sentir dans un détroit, dans un canal entre deux terres rapprochées.

Where the eye mixes race and raz

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

4 ch
race
3 ch
raz

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. race (\ʁas\) and raz (\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 23848, 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\. raz is at rank #21,750, 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 23848, this pair ranks #350,098 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of race vs raz

Shared letters: ar. Private to "race": ce. Private to "raz": z.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racearce · racce · raec · rcae · rrace

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "race" and "raz" 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 "raz"?
"race" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,098 in our French list, against #21,750 for "raz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list