Raise means to lift, increase or bring up, while raze means to demolish something completely. Memory hook: to raze a building is to make it level with the ground, and both raze and erase come from the idea of scraping away.
The core difference
Raise builds up or lifts, while raze tears down until nothing is left standing.
- raise — to lift, increase, bring up a child, or bring up a topic: The landlord raised the rent again this year.
- raze — to tear a building or town down completely: The old cinema was razed to make way for a shopping centre.
How to tell them apart
These two sound the same but point in opposite directions. Raise is about going up: lifting a flag, increasing a price, bringing up children or mentioning a concern. Raze is about going down: a structure destroyed until nothing remains.
The mix-up shows up in writing about buildings and demolition, where people write "the town was raised" when they mean it was flattened. If the thing ends up gone, use raze. It helps to remember that raze shares a family with razor and erase, all linked to the idea of scraping away.
