rayévsrazTell them apart

Quick tell: rayé is a adjective, raz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rayé” is an adjective and “raz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,981
“rayé” frequency rank
#21,750
“raz” frequency rank
38731
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rayé raz
Definition Qui a des raies. Courant marin violent qui se fait sentir dans un détroit, dans un canal entre deux terres rapprochées.

Where the eye mixes rayé and raz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. rayé runs 4 letters (CVVV) against raz's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
rayé
3 ch
raz

Why the eye confuses rayé with raz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rayé is \ʁɛ.je\ while raz is \ʁa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rayé is recorded at frequency rank #16,981, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛ.je\. raz is at rank #21,750, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa\.

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 38731, this pair ranks #253,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rayé vs raz

Shared letters: ar. Private to "rayé": yé. Private to "raz": z.

"rayé" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "raz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rayé" and "raz" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rayé" is an adjective and "raz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "rayé" vs "raz" - which ranks higher?
"rayé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,981 in our French list, against #21,750 for "raz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "rayé" and "raz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rayé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "raz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rayé" and "raz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "RAMQ vs raz". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #253,214 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