Which to use
“ração” is a noun and “racial” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,189
- “ração” frequency rank
- #7,568
- “racial” frequency rank
- 22757
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ração | racial |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | porção fixa de provisões, especialmente para soldados e marinheiros ou para civis em tempos de escassez | relativo a raça |
Where the eye mixes ração and racial
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ração runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against racial's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses ração with racial
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ração is /Rɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ while racial is /Rɐ.ˈsjaɫ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 22757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ração is recorded at frequency rank #15,189, classified as anoun, pronounced /Rɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. 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 22757, this pair ranks #47,204 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ração vs racial
Shared letters: ar. Private to "ração": oãç. Private to "racial": cil.
"ração" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "racial" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- racial ← arcial · racail · raccial · raciall · racila · raical · rcaial · rracial
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ração" for "racial" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ração" or "racial"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ração" and "racial" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ração" 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 #47,204 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ração" and "racial" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ração vs ratio". 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 #47,204 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.