Which to use
“raison” and “raisons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #259
- “raison” frequency rank
- #1,148
- “raisons” frequency rank
- 1407
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raison | raisons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Faculté intellectuelle par laquelle l’homme connaît, juge et se conduit ; entendement. | Pluriel de raison. |
Same sound, different letters: raison vs raisons
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. raison runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against raisons's 7 (CVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - raison / raisons
This is the hard kind. raison and raisons are pronounced identically (\ʁɛ.zɔ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “raison” sits inside “raisons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raison is recorded at frequency rank #259, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ.zɔ̃\. raisons is at rank #1,148, 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 1407, this pair ranks #438,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of raison vs raisons
Shared letters: ainors. Private to "raison": -. Private to "raisons": -.
"raison" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "raisons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "raison" and "raisons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "raison" or "raisons"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "raison" / "raisons". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "raison" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "raisons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raison" and "raisons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Radisson vs raison". 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 #438,119 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.