raidevsrigideWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,455
“raide” frequency rank
#12,045
“rigide” frequency rank
25500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raide rigide
Definition Qui est très tendu et qui a de la peine à ployer. Qui ne plie pas, ne peut être déformé ni assoupli.

Where the eye mixes raide and rigide

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. raide runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against rigide's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
raide
6 ch
rigide

Visual trap between raide and rigide

A purely visual mix-up. raide (\ʁɛd\) and rigide (\ʁi.ʒid\) 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 25500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raide is recorded at frequency rank #13,455, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛd\. rigide is at rank #12,045, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁi.ʒid\.

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 25500, this pair ranks #340,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of raide vs rigide

Shared letters: deir. Private to "raide": a. Private to "rigide": g.

"raide" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "rigide" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raide ← radie · raidde · raied · riade · rraide
  • rigide ← irgide · rgiide · rigdie · riggide · rigidde · rigied · riigde · rrigide

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "raide" and "rigide" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛd\ versus \ʁi.ʒid\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "raide" vs "rigide" - which ranks higher?
"rigide" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,045 in our French list, against #13,455 for "raide". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "raide" and "rigide" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rigide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #340,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raide" and "rigide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "racle vs raide". 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 #340,505 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