Which to use
“arruinado” and “arrumado” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,147
- “arruinado” frequency rank
- #16,940
- “arrumado” frequency rank
- 51087
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arruinado | arrumado |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | que ficou pobre | que se arrumou |
Where the eye mixes arruinado and arrumado
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. arruinado runs 9 letters (VCCVVCVCV) against arrumado's 8 (VCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between arruinado and arrumado
A purely visual mix-up. arruinado (/ɐ.Rwi.ˈna.du/) and arrumado (/ɐ.Ru.ˈma.du/) 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 51087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
arruinado is recorded at frequency rank #34,147, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.Rwi.ˈna.du/. arrumado is at rank #16,940, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.Ru.ˈma.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 51087, this pair ranks #13,917 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of arruinado vs arrumado
Shared letters: adoru. Private to "arruinado": in. Private to "arrumado": m.
"arruinado" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVCV · "arrumado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "arruinado" and "arrumado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "arruinado" or "arrumado"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "arruinado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arrumado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #13,917 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arruinado" and "arrumado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arruinado vs arruinar". 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 #13,917 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.