Which to use
“rayer” and “ruer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,007
- “rayer” frequency rank
- #39,989
- “ruer” frequency rank
- 63996
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rayer | ruer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Marquer d’une ou de plusieurs raies, | Jeter ou lancer vivement. |
Where the eye mixes rayer and ruer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. rayer runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against ruer's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses rayer with ruer
A purely visual mix-up. rayer (\ʁe.je\) and ruer (\ʁɥe\) 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 63996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rayer is recorded at frequency rank #24,007, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.je\. ruer is at rank #39,989, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɥe\.
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 63996, this pair ranks #79,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rayer vs ruer
Shared letters: er. Private to "rayer": ay. Private to "ruer": u.
"rayer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "ruer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "rayer" and "ruer" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "rayer" vs "ruer" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "rayer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ruer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rayer" and "ruer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rouet vs ruer". 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 #79,186 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.