Which to use
“frade” and “Frau” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,162
- “frade” frequency rank
- #32,994
- “Frau” frequency rank
- 63156
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | frade | Frau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | membro de uma ordem religiosa, em especial as ordens franciscanas, dominicanas, carmelitas e augustinianas; freire | mulher |
Where the eye mixes frade and Frau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. frade runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against Frau's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: frade vs Frau
A purely visual mix-up. frade (/ˈfɾa.dɨ/) and Frau (/fraʊ̯/) 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 63156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
frade is recorded at frequency rank #30,162, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɾa.dɨ/. Frau is at rank #32,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fraʊ̯/.
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 63156, this pair ranks #6,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of frade vs Frau
Shared letters: afr. Private to "frade": de. Private to "Frau": u.
"frade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "Frau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "frade" and "Frau" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "frade" or "Frau" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "frade" and "Frau" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "frade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Frau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "frade" and "Frau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foras vs Frau". 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 #6,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.