Which to use
“ration” and “rations” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,645
- “ration” frequency rank
- #26,500
- “rations” frequency rank
- 46145
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ration | rations |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Portion journalière soit de pain, soit d’autres vivres, soit de fourrage, qui se distribue aux soldats ou aux marins. | Pluriel de ration. |
Same sound, different letters: ration vs rations
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - ration / rations
This is the hard kind. ration and rations are pronounced identically (\ʁa.sjɔ̃\) 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) - “ration” sits inside “rations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ration is recorded at frequency rank #19,645, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.sjɔ̃\. rations is at rank #26,500, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.sjɔ̃\.
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 46145, this pair ranks #197,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ration vs rations
Shared letters: ainort. Private to "ration": -. Private to "rations": s.
"ration" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "rations" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ration" and "rations" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "ration" vs "rations" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
"ration" and "rations" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "ration" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #197,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ration" and "rations" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "radon vs ration". 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 #197,254 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.