ração vs relação, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#15,189
“ração” frequency rank: #381
“relação” frequency rank: 15570
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ração	relação
Definition	porção fixa de provisões, especialmente para soldados e marinheiros ou para civis em tempos de escassez	relacionamento

Letter map: ração vs relação

Shared letters muted; letters that set ração and relação apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. ração runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against relação's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch

ração

7 ch

relação

Corpus notes: ração and relação

ração and relação 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15570, 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/. relação is at rank #381, tagged as anoun.

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 15570, this pair ranks #56,223 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ração vs relação

Shared letters: aorãç. Private to "ração": -. Private to "relação": el.

"ração" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "relação" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ração" and "relação" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ração" or "relação" show up more?

"relação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #381 in our Portuguese list, against #15,189 for "ração". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "ração" vs "relação" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ração" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "relação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #56,223 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ração" and "relação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ração vs ratio". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,223 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.