arrastovsatrasoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,462
“arrasto” frequency rank
#4,206
“atraso” frequency rank
32668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arrasto atraso
Definition ato ou efeito de arrastar; arrastamento ato ou efeito de atrasar(-se)

Where the eye mixes arrasto and atraso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. arrasto runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against atraso's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
arrasto
6 ch
atraso

Visual trap between arrasto and atraso

A purely visual mix-up. arrasto (/ɐ.ˈRa.stu/) and atraso (/ɐ.ˈtɾa.zu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arrasto is recorded at frequency rank #28,462, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈRa.stu/. atraso is at rank #4,206, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtɾa.zu/.

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 32668, this pair ranks #35,072 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arrasto vs atraso

Shared letters: aorst. Private to "arrasto": -. Private to "atraso": -.

"arrasto" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "atraso" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arrastoararsto · arasto · arrasot · arrassto · arrastto · arratso · arrsato · rarasto
  • atrasoartaso · atarso · atraos · atrasso · atrraso · atrsao · attraso · taraso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arrasto" for "atraso" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈRa.stu/ versus /ɐ.ˈtɾa.zu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "arrasto" or "atraso"?
"atraso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,206 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "arrasto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atraso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,072 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arrasto" and "atraso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arbusto vs arrasto". 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 #35,072 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