braçovsbruscoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: braço is a noun, brusco is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“braço” is a noun and “brusco” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,130
“braço” frequency rank
#45,220
“brusco” frequency rank
47350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature braço brusco
Definition um dos membros anteriores humanos áspero

Where the eye mixes braço and brusco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
braço
6 ch
brusco

Why the eye confuses braço with brusco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: braço is /ˈbɾä.sʊ/ while brusco is /ˈbɾuʃ.ku/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

braço is recorded at frequency rank #2,130, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɾä.sʊ/. brusco is at rank #45,220, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɾuʃ.ku/.

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 47350, this pair ranks #17,910 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of braço vs brusco

Shared letters: bor. Private to "braço": . Private to "brusco": csu.

"braço" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "brusco" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bruscobbrusco · brrusco · brsuco · brucso · bruscco · brusoc · brussco · bursco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "braço" and "brusco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "braço" is a noun and "brusco" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "braço" or "brusco"?
"braço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,130 in our Portuguese list, against #45,220 for "brusco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "braço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brusco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,910 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "braço" and "brusco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bruços vs brusco". 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 #17,910 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