Which to use
“barro” and “borrão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,961
- “barro” frequency rank
- #48,282
- “borrão” frequency rank
- 58243
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barro | borrão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | a matéria-prima para a cerâmica e a olaria | sujidade |
Where the eye mixes barro and borrão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. barro runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against borrão's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses barro with borrão
A purely visual mix-up. barro (/ˈba.Ru/) and borrão (/bu.ˈRɐ̃w̃/) 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 58243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barro is recorded at frequency rank #9,961, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈba.Ru/. borrão is at rank #48,282, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bu.ˈRɐ̃w̃/.
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 58243, this pair ranks #8,853 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of barro vs borrão
Shared letters: bor. Private to "barro": a. Private to "borrão": ã.
"barro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "borrão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- barro ← abrro · baro · baror · bbarro · braro
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "barro" for "borrão" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "barro" or "borrão" show up more?
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 "barro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "borrão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,853 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barro" and "borrão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "borrão vs borrego". 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 #8,853 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.