anjovsarãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,055
“anjo” frequency rank
#30,004
“arão” frequency rank
33059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anjo arão
Definition segundo a mitologia cristã, criatura celestial puramente espiritual que atua como mensageiro entre Deus e os homens ave marinha, airo, também chamado arau-comum, Uria aalge

Where the eye mixes anjo and arão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
anjo
4 ch
arão

Why the eye confuses anjo with arão

A purely visual mix-up. anjo (/ˈɐ̃.ʒu/) and arão (Singular: /ɐ.'ɾaŋ/, /ɐ.'ɾa.o/, /ɐ.'ɾaw/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anjo is recorded at frequency rank #3,055, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɐ̃.ʒu/. arão is at rank #30,004, tagged as anoun, pronounced Singular: /ɐ.'ɾaŋ/, /ɐ.'ɾa.o/, /ɐ.'ɾaw/.

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 33059, this pair ranks #34,567 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of anjo vs arão

Shared letters: ao. Private to "anjo": jn. Private to "arão": .

"anjo" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "arão" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anjoajno · anjjo · annjo · anoj · najo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "anjo" and "arão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɐ̃.ʒu/ versus Singular: /ɐ.'ɾaŋ/, /ɐ.'ɾa.o/, /ɐ.'ɾaw/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "anjo" vs "arão" - which ranks higher?
"anjo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,055 in our Portuguese list, against #30,004 for "arão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "anjo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,567 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anjo" and "arão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arão vs atar". 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 #34,567 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