fradevsfreeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#30,162
“frade” frequency rank
#3,331
“free” frequency rank
33493
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frade free
Definition membro de uma ordem religiosa, em especial as ordens franciscanas, dominicanas, carmelitas e augustinianas; freire ver gratuito, de graça

Letter map: frade vs free

Shared letters muted; letters that set frade and free apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
frade
4 ch
free

Part-of-speech tell for frade / free

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: frade is anoun and freeanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33493, 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/. free is at rank #3,331, tagged as anadj.

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 33493, this pair ranks #34,016 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frade vs free

Shared letters: efr. Private to "frade": ad. Private to "free": -.

"frade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "free" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fradefarde · ffrade · fradde · fraed · frdae · frrade · rfade
  • freefere · ffree · fre · frree · rfee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "frade" for "free" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frade" is a noun and "free" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "frade" vs "free" - which ranks higher?
"free" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,331 in our Portuguese list, against #30,162 for "frade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "frade" vs "free" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "frade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "free" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,016 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frade" and "free" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frade 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 #34,016 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