arroiovsarrowWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,648
“arroio” frequency rank
#17,971
“arrow” frequency rank
49619
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arroio arrow
Definition ribeiro flecha

Where the eye mixes arroio and arrow

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
arroio
5 ch
arrow

Visual trap between arroio and arrow

A purely visual mix-up. arroio (/a.ˈχoj.u/) and arrow (/ˈaɹ.əʊ/) 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 49619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arroio is recorded at frequency rank #31,648, classified as anoun, pronounced /a.ˈχoj.u/. arrow is at rank #17,971, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɹ.əʊ/.

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 49619, this pair ranks #15,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arroio vs arrow

Shared letters: aor. Private to "arroio": i. Private to "arrow": w.

"arroio" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV  ·  "arrow" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arroioaroio · arorio · arrioo · arrooi · raroio
  • arrowarorw · arow · arroww · arrwo · rarow

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arroio" for "arrow" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/a.ˈχoj.u/ versus /ˈaɹ.əʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "arroio" vs "arrow" - which ranks higher?
"arrow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,971 in our Portuguese list, against #31,648 for "arroio". 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 "arroio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arrow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arroio" and "arrow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arraia vs arroio". 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 #15,372 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