Which to use
“raça” is a noun and “racial” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,535
- “raça” frequency rank
- #7,568
- “racial” frequency rank
- 10103
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | raça | racial |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | conjunto de indivíduos que conservam, entre si, caracteres somáticos semelhantes; estas características são transmitidas por hereditariedade | relativo a raça |
Where the eye mixes raça and racial
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. raça runs 4 letters (CVCV) against racial's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between raça and racial
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raça is /ˈRa.sɐ/ while racial is /Rɐ.ˈsjaɫ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10103, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
raça is recorded at frequency rank #2,535, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRa.sɐ/. racial is at rank #7,568, tagged as anadj, pronounced /Rɐ.ˈsjaɫ/.
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 10103, this pair ranks #63,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of raça vs racial
Shared letters: ar. Private to "raça": ç. Private to "racial": cil.
"raça" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "racial" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- racial ← arcial · racail · raccial · raciall · racila · raical · rcaial · rracial
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "raça" for "racial" ever safe?
Frequency check: "raça" vs "racial" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "raça" and "racial" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "raça" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "racial" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "raça" and "racial" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs raça". 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 #63,114 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.