grãovsgreatTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,346
“grão” frequency rank
#8,059
“great” frequency rank
16405
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grão great
Definition forma reduzida de grande fantástico, de ótima qualidade

Where the eye mixes grão and great

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
grão
5 ch
great

Why the eye confuses grão with great

A purely visual mix-up. grão (/ˈɡɾɐ̃w̃/) and great (/ɡɹeɪt/) 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 16405, 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/. great is at rank #8,059, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɡɹeɪt/.

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 16405, this pair ranks #55,137 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of grão vs great

Shared letters: gr. Private to "grão": . Private to "great": aet.

"grão" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "great" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • greatgerat · ggreat · graet · greatt · greta · grreat · rgeat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grão" and "great" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɡɾɐ̃w̃/ versus /ɡɹeɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grão" or "great"?
"great" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,059 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "grão" and "great" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "great" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,137 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grão" and "great" 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 #55,137 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