gearvsgrauWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: gear is a verb, grau is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gear” is a verb and “grau” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,339
“gear” frequency rank
#2,014
“grau” frequency rank
26353
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gear grau
Definition cair geada unidade de ângulo

Letter map: gear vs grau

Shared letters muted; letters that set gear and grau apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
gear
4 ch
grau

Grammar separator: gear vs grau

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: gear is averb and grauanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gear is recorded at frequency rank #24,339, classified as averb, pronounced /ʒe.ˈaɾ/, /ʒe.ˈa/. grau is at rank #2,014, tagged as anoun.

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 26353, this pair ranks #42,827 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gear vs grau

Shared letters: agr. Private to "gear": e. Private to "grau": u.

"gear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gearegar · gaer · gera · ggear
  • graugaru · ggrau · grrau · rgau

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gear" and "grau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gear" is a verb and "grau" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gear" vs "grau" - which ranks higher?
"grau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,014 in our Portuguese list, against #24,339 for "gear". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "gear" vs "grau" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,827 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gear" and "grau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gear vs Guam". 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 #42,827 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