rasoirsvsravoirWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,106
“rasoirs” frequency rank
#41,996
“ravoir” frequency rank
85102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rasoirs ravoir
Definition Pluriel de rasoir. Filet tendu verticalement, tour à tour couvert et découvert par la marée ^([1]). Filet tendu au travers d’une rivière ^([1]).

Where the eye mixes rasoirs and ravoir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
rasoirs
6 ch
ravoir

Visual trap between rasoirs and ravoir

A purely visual mix-up. rasoirs (\ʁa.zwaʁ\) and ravoir (\ʁa.vwaʁ\) 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 85102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rasoirs is recorded at frequency rank #43,106, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.zwaʁ\. ravoir is at rank #41,996, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.vwaʁ\.

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 85102, this pair ranks #11,874 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rasoirs vs ravoir

Shared letters: aior. Private to "rasoirs": s. Private to "ravoir": v.

"rasoirs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "ravoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rasoirsarsoirs · raosirs · rasiors · rasoirrs · rasoirss · rasoisr · rasoris · rassoirs
  • ravoirarvoir · raovir · ravior · ravoirr · ravori · ravvoir · rravoir · rvaoir

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rasoirs" and "ravoir" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.zwaʁ\ versus \ʁa.vwaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "rasoirs" or "ravoir" show up more?
"ravoir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,996 in our French list, against #43,106 for "rasoirs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rasoirs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ravoir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,874 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rasoirs" and "ravoir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ravoir vs revoie". 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 #11,874 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