Which to use
“ray” and “rayon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,886
- “ray” frequency rank
- #3,871
- “rayon” frequency rank
- 8757
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ray | rayon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Culture sur brûlis en Asie. | Ligne rectiligne qui part d’un centre et va en divergeant. |
Where the eye mixes ray and rayon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ray with rayon
A purely visual mix-up. ray (\ʁɛ\) and rayon (\ʁɛ.jɔ̃\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “ray” sits inside “rayon”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ray is recorded at frequency rank #4,886, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ\. rayon is at rank #3,871, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛ.jɔ̃\.
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 8757, this pair ranks #418,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ray vs rayon
Shared letters: ary. Private to "ray": -. Private to "rayon": no.
"ray" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "rayon" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- rayon ← aryon · raoyn · rayno · rayonn · rayyon · rrayon · ryaon
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ray" for "rayon" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ray" vs "rayon" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ray" and "rayon" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ray" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rayon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #418,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ray" and "rayon" 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 #418,945 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.