racevsrapaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#12,135
“race” frequency rank
#42,635
“rapa” frequency rank
54770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature race rapa
Definition raça grupo de pessoas, um coletivo de pessoas

Letter map: race vs rapa

Shared letters muted; letters that set race and rapa apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. race and rapa follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
race
4 ch
rapa

Pair insight - race / rapa

race and rapa 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

race is recorded at frequency rank #12,135, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪs/. rapa is at rank #42,635, 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 54770, this pair ranks #11,049 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of race vs rapa

Shared letters: ar. Private to "race": ce. Private to "rapa": p.

"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rapa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • race ← racce · raec · rcae · rrace
  • rapa ← arpa · raap · rappa · rpaa · rrapa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "race" for "rapa" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "race" vs "rapa" - which ranks higher?
"race" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,135 in our Portuguese list, against #42,635 for "rapa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "race" and "rapa". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "race" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rapa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,049 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "race" and "rapa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs rapa". 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 #11,049 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