Which to use
“raté” and “rayée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,217
- “raté” frequency rank
- #34,275
- “rayée” frequency rank
- 37492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raté | rayée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a raté, qui a échoué, qui n’a pas atteint son but. | Féminin singulier de rayé. |
Where the eye mixes raté and rayée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. raté runs 4 letters (CVCV) against rayée's 5 (CVVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses raté with rayée
A purely visual mix-up. raté (\ʁa.te\) and rayée (\ʁɛ.je\) 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 37492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raté is recorded at frequency rank #3,217, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁa.te\. rayée is at rank #34,275, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛ.je\.
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 37492, this pair ranks #262,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of raté vs rayée
Shared letters: aré. Private to "raté": t. Private to "rayée": ey.
"raté" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rayée" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "raté" for "rayée" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "raté" or "rayée" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "raté" and "rayée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "raté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rayée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #262,136 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raté" and "rayée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "râles vs rayée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #262,136 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.