Which to use
“borrão” is a noun and “borrar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,282
- “borrão” frequency rank
- #41,857
- “borrar” frequency rank
- 90139
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | borrão | borrar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sujidade | cobrir com bosta a eira terrosa, previamente à malha do cereal, para assim facilitar a lavoura. |
Where the eye mixes borrão and borrar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. borrão (CVCCVV) and borrar (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: borrão vs borrar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: borrão is /bu.ˈRɐ̃w̃/ while borrar is /bo.ˈraɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
borrão is recorded at frequency rank #48,282, classified as anoun, pronounced /bu.ˈRɐ̃w̃/. borrar is at rank #41,857, tagged as averb, pronounced /bo.ˈraɾ/.
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 90139, this pair ranks #285 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of borrão vs borrar
Shared letters: bor. Private to "borrão": ã. Private to "borrar": a.
"borrão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "borrar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- borrar ← bborrar · borarr · borrarr · borrra · brorar · obrrar
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "borrão" and "borrar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "borrão" or "borrar"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "borrão" and "borrar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "borrão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "borrar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #285 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "borrão" and "borrar" 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 #285 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.