grauvsgrayTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,014
“grau” frequency rank
#10,365
“gray” frequency rank
12379
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grau gray
Definition unidade de ângulo unidade no Sistema Internacional de medidas, representado por Gy, que representa a quantidade de energia de radiação ionizante absorvida (ou dose) por unidade de massa, e é definido como a quantidade que deposita 1 joule (J) de energia por quilograma (kg) do meio absorvedor, sendo 1 Gy = 1 J/kg

Letter map: grau vs gray

Shared letters muted; letters that set grau and gray apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
grau
4 ch
gray

Spelling & dictionary notes on grau vs gray

grau and gray 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 a single letter - u in “grau” becomes y in “gray”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grau is recorded at frequency rank #2,014, classified as anoun. gray is at rank #10,365, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'greɪ/.

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 12379, this pair ranks #60,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grau vs gray

Shared letters: agr. Private to "grau": u. Private to "gray": y.

"grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "gray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • graugaru · ggrau · grrau · rgau
  • graygary · ggray · grayy · grray · grya · rgay

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "grau" for "gray" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - u in “grau” becomes y in “gray”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "grau" vs "gray" - which ranks higher?
"grau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,014 in our Portuguese list, against #10,365 for "gray". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "grau" and "gray". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grau" and "gray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gray 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 #60,237 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