razvsredWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#21,750
“raz” frequency rank
#3,498
“red” frequency rank
25248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raz red
Definition Courant marin violent qui se fait sentir dans un détroit, dans un canal entre deux terres rapprochées. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’impératif à la forme active de reden.

Where the eye mixes raz and red

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
raz
3 ch
red

Look-alike desk: raz vs red

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raz is \ʁa\ while red is \ʁeːt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raz is recorded at frequency rank #21,750, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa\. red is at rank #3,498, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁeːt\.

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 25248, this pair ranks #341,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of raz vs red

Shared letters: r. Private to "raz": az. Private to "red": de.

"raz" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "red" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "raz" and "red" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raz" is a noun and "red" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "raz" or "red" show up more?
"red" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,498 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "red" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #341,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raz" and "red" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "RAMQ vs raz". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #341,935 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