rayésvsrayonsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#43,107
“rayés” frequency rank
#5,492
“rayons” frequency rank
48599
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rayés rayons
Definition Masculin pluriel de rayé. Pluriel de rayon.

Where the eye mixes rayés and rayons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
rayés
6 ch
rayons

Look-alike desk: rayés vs rayons

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rayés is \ʁɛ.je\ while rayons is \ʁɛ.jɔ̃\. 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 48599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rayés is recorded at frequency rank #43,107, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛ.je\. rayons is at rank #5,492, 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 48599, this pair ranks #177,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rayés vs rayons

Shared letters: arsy. Private to "rayés": é. Private to "rayons": no.

"rayés" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "rayons" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rayonsaryons · raoyns · raynos · rayonns · rayonss · rayosn · rayyons · rrayons

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rayés" and "rayons" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rayés" is an adjective and "rayons" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "rayés" or "rayons" show up more?
"rayons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,492 in our French list, against #43,107 for "rayés". 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 "rayés" and "rayons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rayés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rayons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #177,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rayés" and "rayons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rayés vs Rhys". 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 #177,610 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