Which to use
“rare” is an adjective and “ray” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,785
- “rare” frequency rank
- #4,886
- “ray” frequency rank
- 6671
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rare | ray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est en petit nombre ; qui se trouve difficilement. | Culture sur brûlis en Asie. |
Where the eye mixes rare and ray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: rare vs ray
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rare is \ʁaʁ\ while ray is \ʁɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6671, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rare is recorded at frequency rank #1,785, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁaʁ\. ray is at rank #4,886, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ\.
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 6671, this pair ranks #425,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of rare vs ray
Shared letters: ar. Private to "rare": e. Private to "ray": y.
"rare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "ray" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- rare ← arre · raer · rarre · rrae · rrare
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rare" for "ray" ever safe?
Frequency check: "rare" vs "ray" - which ranks higher?
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 "rare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #425,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rare" and "ray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ray vs roya". 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 #425,578 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.