raçãovsrotaçãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,189
“ração” frequency rank
#11,342
“rotação” frequency rank
26531
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ração rotação
Definition porção fixa de provisões, especialmente para soldados e marinheiros ou para civis em tempos de escassez ato ou efeito de rodar

Where the eye mixes ração and rotação

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ração runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against rotação's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
ração
7 ch
rotação

Why the eye confuses ração with rotação

A purely visual mix-up. ração (/Rɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and rotação (/Ru.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26531, 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/. rotação is at rank #11,342, tagged as anoun, pronounced /Ru.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 26531, this pair ranks #42,623 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ração vs rotação

Shared letters: aorãç. Private to "ração": -. Private to "rotação": t.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ração" for "rotação" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/Rɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /Ru.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ração" vs "rotação" - which ranks higher?
"rotação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,342 in our Portuguese list, against #15,189 for "ração". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ração" and "rotação" 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 "rotação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,623 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ração" and "rotação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ração vs ratio". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,623 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