ráciovsraloTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#39,370
“rácio” frequency rank
#20,418
“ralo” frequency rank
59788
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rácio ralo
Definition relação pouco espesso, pouco denso

Letter map: rácio vs ralo

Shared letters muted; letters that set rácio and ralo apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. rácio runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against ralo's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
rácio
4 ch
ralo

Grammar separator: rácio vs ralo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: rácio is anoun and raloanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59788, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rácio is recorded at frequency rank #39,370, classified as anoun. ralo is at rank #20,418, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈRa.lu/.

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 59788, this pair ranks #8,004 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rácio vs ralo

Shared letters: or. Private to "rácio": ciá. Private to "ralo": al.

"rácio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "ralo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ralo ← arlo · rallo · raol · rlao · rralo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rácio" and "ralo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rácio" is a noun and "ralo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rácio" or "ralo"?
"ralo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,418 in our Portuguese list, against #39,370 for "rácio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "rácio" and "ralo". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rácio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ralo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,004 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rácio" and "ralo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs rácio". 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 #8,004 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