racevsricoConfusable pair

Quick tell: race is a noun, rico is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“race” is a noun and “rico” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,135
“race” frequency rank
#1,724
“rico” frequency rank
13859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature race rico
Definition raça diz-se de quem tem muito dinheiro

Letter map: race vs rico

Shared letters muted; letters that set race and rico apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
race
4 ch
rico

Part-of-speech tell for race / rico

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: race is anoun and ricoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13859, 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/. rico is at rank #1,724, tagged as anadj.

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 13859, this pair ranks #58,356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of race vs rico

Shared letters: cr. Private to "race": ae. Private to "rico": io.

"race" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rico" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raceracce · raec · rcae · rrace
  • ricoirco · rcio · ricco · rioc · rrico

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "race" and "rico" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "race" is a noun and "rico" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "race" or "rico"?
"rico" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,724 in our Portuguese list, against #12,135 for "race". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "race" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "race" and "rico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs race". 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 #58,356 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