ras vs rusé, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#6,546
“ras” frequency rank: #28,728
“rusé” frequency rank: 35274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ras	rusé
Definition	Qui a le poil très court, coupé tout près de la peau, en parlant d’un être vivant.	Qui a de la ruse, qui est plein de ruses.

Where the eye mixes ras and rusé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

ras

4 ch

rusé

Visual trap between ras and rusé

A purely visual mix-up. ras (\ʁa\) and rusé (\ʁy.ze\) 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 35274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ras is recorded at frequency rank #6,546, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁa\. rusé is at rank #28,728, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁy.ze\.

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 35274, this pair ranks #277,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ras vs rusé

Shared letters: rs. Private to "ras": a. Private to "rusé": ué.

"ras" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "rusé" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ras" and "rusé" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\ʁa\ versus \ʁy.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "ras" or "rusé"?

"ras" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,546 in our French list, against #28,728 for "rusé". 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 "ras" and "rusé" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "ras" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "rusé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #277,943 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ras" and "rusé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rusé vs rustre". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #277,943 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.