raidvsravinWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,139
“raid” frequency rank
#19,382
“ravin” frequency rank
27521
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raid ravin
Definition Incursion rapide en territoire ennemi. Forte dépression de terrain ; vallon étroit et raide.

Where the eye mixes raid and ravin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
raid
5 ch
ravin

Visual trap between raid and ravin

A purely visual mix-up. raid (\ʁɛd\) and ravin (\ʁa.vɛ̃\) 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 27521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raid is recorded at frequency rank #8,139, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛd\. ravin is at rank #19,382, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.vɛ̃\.

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 27521, this pair ranks #328,436 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raid vs ravin

Shared letters: air. Private to "raid": d. Private to "ravin": nv.

"raid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "ravin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raidarid · radi · raidd · rraid
  • ravinarvin · raivn · ravinn · ravni · ravvin · rravin · rvain

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raid" for "ravin" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛd\ versus \ʁa.vɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "raid" vs "ravin" - which ranks higher?
"raid" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,139 in our French list, against #19,382 for "ravin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "raid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ravin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #328,436 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raid" and "ravin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rani vs ravin". 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 #328,436 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