aradovsáridoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,977
“arado” frequency rank
#25,518
“árido” frequency rank
65495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arado árido
Definition diz-se do solo que foi lavrado sem umidade

Where the eye mixes arado and árido

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

5 ch
arado
5 ch
árido

Look-alike desk: arado vs árido

A purely visual mix-up. arado (/aˈɾa.du/) and árido (/ˈa.ɾi.du/) 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 65495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arado is recorded at frequency rank #39,977, classified as anadj, pronounced /aˈɾa.du/. árido is at rank #25,518, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈa.ɾi.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 65495, this pair ranks #5,351 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arado vs árido

Shared letters: dor. Private to "arado": a. Private to "árido": iá.

"arado" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "árido" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arado ← aardo · araddo · araod · ardao · arrado · raado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "arado" and "árido" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/aˈɾa.du/ versus /ˈa.ɾi.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "arado" vs "árido" - which ranks higher?
"árido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,518 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "arado" and "árido" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "árido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,351 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arado" and "árido" 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 #5,351 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