grãovsGuamWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,346
“grão” frequency rank
#46,359
“Guam” frequency rank
54705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grão Guam
Definition forma reduzida de grande Guam

Where the eye mixes grão and Guam

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
grão
4 ch
Guam

Why the eye confuses grão with Guam

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grão is /ˈɡɾɐ̃w̃/ while Guam is /ɡwam/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54705, 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/. Guam is at rank #46,359, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡwam/.

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 54705, this pair ranks #11,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of grão vs Guam

Shared letters: g. Private to "grão": orã. Private to "Guam": amu.

"grão" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "Guam" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Guamgaum · gguam · guamm · guma · ugam

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "grão" and "Guam" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grão" is an adjective and "Guam" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "grão" or "Guam" show up more?
"grão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,346 in our Portuguese list, against #46,359 for "Guam". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Guam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,087 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grão" and "Guam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grua 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 #11,087 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