abalovsaradoTell them apart

Quick tell: abalo is a noun, arado is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“abalo” is a noun and “arado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,870
“abalo” frequency rank
#39,977
“arado” frequency rank
65847
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abalo arado
Definition ato ou efeito de abalar diz-se do solo que foi lavrado

Where the eye mixes abalo and arado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. abalo and arado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
abalo
5 ch
arado

Look-alike desk: abalo vs arado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abalo is /ɐ.ˈba.lu/ while arado is /aˈɾa.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65847, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abalo is recorded at frequency rank #25,870, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈba.lu/. arado is at rank #39,977, tagged as anadj, pronounced /aˈɾa.du/.

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 65847, this pair ranks #5,225 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of abalo vs arado

Shared letters: ao. Private to "abalo": bl. Private to "arado": dr.

"abalo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "arado" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abaloaablo · aballo · abaol · abbalo · ablao · baalo
  • aradoaardo · araddo · araod · ardao · arrado · raado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abalo" and "arado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abalo" is a noun and "arado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "abalo" vs "arado" - which ranks higher?
"abalo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,870 in our Portuguese list, against #39,977 for "arado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abalo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,225 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abalo" and "arado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alado vs arado". 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 #5,225 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