ratevsravenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“rate” and “raven” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,321
“rate” frequency rank
#17,124
“raven” frequency rank
47445
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rate raven
Definition taxa corvo

Where the eye mixes rate and raven

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
rate
5 ch
raven

Look-alike desk: rate vs raven

A purely visual mix-up. rate (/ɹeɪt/, SAMPA: /r\eIt/) and raven (/ˈɹeɪvən/) 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 47445, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rate is recorded at frequency rank #30,321, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪt/, SAMPA: /r\eIt/. raven is at rank #17,124, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹeɪvən/.

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 47445, this pair ranks #17,804 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rate vs raven

Shared letters: aer. Private to "rate": t. Private to "raven": nv.

"rate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "raven" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rateraet · ratte · rrate · rtae
  • ravenarven · raevn · ravenn · ravne · ravven · rraven · rvaen

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rate" and "raven" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɹeɪt/, SAMPA: /r\eIt/ versus /ˈɹeɪvən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rate" vs "raven" - which ranks higher?
"raven" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,124 in our Portuguese list, against #30,321 for "rate". 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 "rate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "raven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,804 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rate" and "raven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs rate". 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 #17,804 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list