raflervsrayerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,451
“rafler” frequency rank
#24,007
“rayer” frequency rank
64458
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rafler rayer
Definition Emporter brutalement, sans rien laisser. Marquer d’une ou de plusieurs raies,

Where the eye mixes rafler and rayer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
rafler
5 ch
rayer

Look-alike desk: rafler vs rayer

A purely visual mix-up. rafler (\ʁa.fle\) and rayer (\ʁe.je\) 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 64458, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rafler is recorded at frequency rank #40,451, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁa.fle\. rayer is at rank #24,007, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.je\.

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 64458, this pair ranks #77,005 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rafler vs rayer

Shared letters: aer. Private to "rafler": fl. Private to "rayer": y.

"rafler" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "rayer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raflerarfler · rafelr · raffler · raflerr · rafller · raflre · ralfer · rfaler
  • rayeraryer · raeyr · rayerr · rayre · rayyer · rrayer · ryaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rafler" and "rayer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.fle\ versus \ʁe.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rafler" or "rayer"?
"rayer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,007 in our French list, against #40,451 for "rafler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rafler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rayer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #77,005 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rafler" and "rayer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rafler 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 #77,005 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list