arrastarvsarrastoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: arrastar is a verb, arrasto is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“arrastar” is a verb and “arrasto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,442
“arrastar” frequency rank
#28,462
“arrasto” frequency rank
41904
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arrastar arrasto
Definition puxar atrás de si, geralmente com dificuldade, fazendo que deslize pelo chão ato ou efeito de arrastar; arrastamento

Where the eye mixes arrastar and arrasto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. arrastar runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVC) against arrasto's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
arrastar
7 ch
arrasto

Look-alike desk: arrastar vs arrasto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arrastar is /ɐ.Rɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/ while arrasto is /ɐ.ˈRa.stu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41904, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arrastar is recorded at frequency rank #13,442, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.Rɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/. arrasto is at rank #28,462, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈRa.stu/.

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 41904, this pair ranks #23,948 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arrastar vs arrasto

Shared letters: arst. Private to "arrastar": -. Private to "arrasto": o.

"arrastar" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "arrasto" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arrastarararstar · arastar · arrasatr · arrasstar · arrastarr · arrastra · arrasttar · arratsar
  • arrastoararsto · arasto · arrasot · arrassto · arrastto · arratso · arrsato · rarasto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "arrastar" and "arrasto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arrastar" is a verb and "arrasto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "arrastar" or "arrasto" show up more?
"arrastar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,442 in our Portuguese list, against #28,462 for "arrasto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arrastar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arrasto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,948 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arrastar" and "arrasto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arrastar vs arrotar". 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 #23,948 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