freivsfreteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,500
“frei” frequency rank
#12,685
“frete” frequency rank
22185
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frei frete
Definition variante ortográfica de freire aluguel de embarcação

Letter map: frei vs frete

Shared letters muted; letters that set frei and frete apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. frei runs 4 letters (CCVV) against frete's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
frei
5 ch
frete

Corpus notes: frei and frete

frei and frete are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frei is recorded at frequency rank #9,500, classified as anoun. frete is at rank #12,685, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɾɛ.tɨ/.

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 22185, this pair ranks #47,914 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frei vs frete

Shared letters: efr. Private to "frei": i. Private to "frete": t.

"frei" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "frete" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frei ← feri · ffrei · frie · frrei · rfei
  • frete ← ferte · ffrete · freet · frette · frrete · frtee · rfete

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "frei" for "frete" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "frei" vs "frete" - which ranks higher?
"frei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,500 in our Portuguese list, against #12,685 for "frete". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "frei" vs "frete" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "frei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,914 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frei" and "frete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fel vs frei". 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 #47,914 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