Raise and rear both work for bringing up a child, as in they raised three children or they reared three children on the family farm, so either is correct there. But raise also covers lifting things, increasing amounts, and bringing up a topic, while rear can mean a horse rising on its hind legs or simply the back part of something — so beyond child-rearing, the two words go separate ways.
The core difference
Raise and rear overlap only in the sense of bringing up children; each has its own additional meanings elsewhere.
- raise — to lift, increase, bring up children or animals, or bring up a subject: The landlord raised the rent again this year.
- rear — to bring up a child or young animal, or (of a horse) to rise on its hind legs, or the back part of something: The horse reared in fright at the sudden noise.
How to tell them apart
For child-rearing, raise and rear are genuinely interchangeable — both describe caring for someone or something until it's grown, and the choice is largely a matter of style, with rear sounding a touch more formal or old-fashioned. Outside that shared meaning, though, they part ways: raise is the all-purpose word for lifting a hand, raising a concern, or raising the rent, none of which rear can do.
Rear keeps its own distinct territory too, describing a horse rising up on its hind legs, or the back of something, as in the rear of the building. The two words share a common root — rear comes from an Old English word meaning "to cause to rise," making it a distant relative of raise — which is likely why the child-rearing sense overlaps so naturally.
