runvsruthWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,908
“run” frequency rank
#12,858
“ruth” frequency rank
22766
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes run and ruth

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

3 ch
run
4 ch
ruth

Visual trap between run and ruth

A purely visual mix-up. run (\ʁœn\) and ruth (\ɹuːθ\) 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 22766, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

run is recorded at frequency rank #9,908, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁœn\. ruth is at rank #12,858, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɹuːθ\.

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 22766, this pair ranks #356,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of run vs ruth

Shared letters: ru. Private to "run": n. Private to "ruth": ht.

"run" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "ruth" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruthrruth · rtuh · ruht · ruthh · rutth · urth

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "run" for "ruth" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁœn\ versus \ɹuːθ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "run" or "ruth"?
"run" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,908 in our French list, against #12,858 for "ruth". 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 "run" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #356,260 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "run" and "ruth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rune vs ruth". 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 #356,260 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