radarvsrádioConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,454
“radar” frequency rank
#857
“rádio” frequency rank
8311
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature radar rádio
Definition dispositivo que permite detectar objetos a longas distâncias elemento químico de símbolo Ra, possui o número atômico 88 e massa atômica relativa 226,025 u; é um metal alcalino terroso, branco prateado, altamente radioativo; ocorre em todos os minérios de urânio, e é produzido por decaimento radioativo; é utilizado na medicina para tratamento de câncer e, em laboratórios, como fonte de neutrons para análise de materiais

Letter map: radar vs rádio

Shared letters muted; letters that set radar and rádio apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

5 ch
radar
5 ch
rádio

Pair insight - radar / rádio

radar and rádio 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8311, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

radar is recorded at frequency rank #7,454, classified as anoun, pronounced /Ra.ˈdaɾ/. rádio is at rank #857, 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 8311, this pair ranks #65,503 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of radar vs rádio

Shared letters: dr. Private to "radar": a. Private to "rádio": ioá.

"radar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rádio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • radarardar · raadr · radarr · raddar · radra · rdaar · rradar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "radar" for "rádio" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "radar" or "rádio"?
"rádio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #857 in our Portuguese list, against #7,454 for "radar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "radar" vs "rádio" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "radar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rádio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,503 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "radar" and "rádio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "radar vs rimar". 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 #65,503 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