High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A raion (or rayon) is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon `honeycomb, department,` describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district". Raion also can be used simply as a second degree of administrative division without anything to do with ethnicity or nationality. A raion is usually an administrative entity two steps below the national level, however in smaller countries it could be the primary level of administrative division.