Which to use
“raisin” and “raison” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,649
- “raisin” frequency rank
- #259
- “raison” frequency rank
- 11908
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raisin | raison |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fruit de la vigne constitué d’une grappe de grains (baies) placés les uns à côté des autres d’une couleur clair à foncé suivant la variété. | Faculté intellectuelle par laquelle l’homme connaît, juge et se conduit ; entendement. |
Where the eye mixes raisin and raison
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. raisin and raison follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses raisin with raison
A purely visual mix-up. raisin (\ʁɛ.zɛ̃\) and raison (\ʁɛ.zɔ̃\) 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 a single letter - i in “raisin” becomes o in “raison”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raisin is recorded at frequency rank #11,649, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ.zɛ̃\. raison is at rank #259, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ.zɔ̃\.
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 11908, this pair ranks #407,319 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of raisin vs raison
Shared letters: ainrs. Private to "raisin": -. Private to "raison": o.
"raisin" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "raison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "raisin" and "raison" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "raisin" or "raison"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "raisin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "raison" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,319 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raisin" and "raison" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabin vs raisin". 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 #407,319 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.