grãovsgrauWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,346
“grão” frequency rank
#2,014
“grau” frequency rank
10360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grão grau
Definition forma reduzida de grande unidade de ângulo

Letter map: grão vs grau

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

4 ch
grão
4 ch
grau

Grammar separator: grão vs grau

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: grão is anadjective and grauanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grão is recorded at frequency rank #8,346, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡɾɐ̃w̃/. 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 10360, this pair ranks #62,770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grão vs grau

Shared letters: gr. Private to "grão": . Private to "grau": au.

"grão" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • graugaru · ggrau · grrau · rgau

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "grão" for "grau" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grão" is an adjective and "grau" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "grão" 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 #8,346 for "grão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "grão" and "grau".

  • Full dictionary entry for "grão" 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 #62,770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grão" and "grau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grão vs grip". 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 #62,770 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