rubyvsrunWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ruby” and “run” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,668
“ruby” frequency rank
#9,908
“run” frequency rank
29576
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ruby run
Definition Rubis. Nom de l’étendue de pâturages, en Australie, accordée aux propriétaires de troupeaux de moutons.

Where the eye mixes ruby and run

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ruby
3 ch
run

Visual trap between ruby and run

A purely visual mix-up. ruby (\ˈɹuː.bi\) and run (\ʁœn\) 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 29576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ruby is recorded at frequency rank #19,668, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɹuː.bi\. run is at rank #9,908, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁœn\.

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 29576, this pair ranks #315,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ruby vs run

Shared letters: ru. Private to "ruby": by. Private to "run": n.

"ruby" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "run" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rubyrbuy · rruby · rubby · rubyy · ruyb · urby

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ruby" for "run" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈɹuː.bi\ versus \ʁœn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ruby" vs "run" - which ranks higher?
"run" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,908 in our French list, against #19,668 for "ruby". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ruby" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "run" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ruby" and "run" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "RGB vs ruby". 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 #315,791 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