Which to use
“racer” and “raven” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,665
- “racer” frequency rank
- #24,353
- “raven” frequency rank
- 69018
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | racer | raven |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bateau de course à moteur. | Corbeau. |
Where the eye mixes racer and raven
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. racer and raven follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses racer with raven
A purely visual mix-up. racer (\ʁa.sœʁ\) and raven (\ˈɹeɪ.vən\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69018, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
racer is recorded at frequency rank #44,665, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.sœʁ\. raven is at rank #24,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈɹeɪ.vən\.
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 69018, this pair ranks #56,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of racer vs raven
Shared letters: aer. Private to "racer": c. Private to "raven": nv.
"racer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "raven" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "racer" for "raven" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "racer" or "raven" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "racer" and "raven" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "racer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "raven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #56,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "racer" and "raven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "racer vs râles". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #56,806 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.