bordovsborraWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,456
“bordo” frequency rank
#40,920
“borra” frequency rank
44376
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bordo borra
Definition cada um dos lados de um navio chasco, ave do gênero Oenanthe

Where the eye mixes bordo and borra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bordo and borra follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
bordo
5 ch
borra

Look-alike desk: bordo vs borra

A purely visual mix-up. bordo (/ˈbɔɾ.du/) and borra (/ˈbɔ.Rɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bordo is recorded at frequency rank #3,456, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɔɾ.du/. borra is at rank #40,920, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɔ.Rɐ/.

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 44376, this pair ranks #21,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bordo vs borra

Shared letters: bor. Private to "bordo": d. Private to "borra": a.

"bordo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "borra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bordo ← bbordo · bodro · borddo · borod · borrdo · brodo · obrdo
  • borra ← bborra · borar · brora

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bordo" for "borra" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbɔɾ.du/ versus /ˈbɔ.Rɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bordo" vs "borra" - which ranks higher?
"bordo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,456 in our Portuguese list, against #40,920 for "borra". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bordo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "borra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bordo" and "borra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "borra vs borrão". 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 #21,126 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