raiavsruirWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: raia is a noun, ruir is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“raia” is a noun and “ruir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,104
“raia” frequency rank
#34,026
“ruir” frequency rank
57130
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raia ruir
Definition o mesmo que arraia desmoronar, desabar

Where the eye mixes raia and ruir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. raia (CVVV) and ruir (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
raia
4 ch
ruir

Look-alike desk: raia vs ruir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raia is /ˈRaj.ɐ/ while ruir is /ˈRwiɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57130, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raia is recorded at frequency rank #23,104, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRaj.ɐ/. ruir is at rank #34,026, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈRwiɾ/.

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 57130, this pair ranks #9,523 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of raia vs ruir

Shared letters: ir. Private to "raia": a. Private to "ruir": u.

"raia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "ruir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raia ← aria · raai · riaa · rraia
  • ruir ← riur · rruir · ruirr · ruri · urir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raia" for "ruir" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raia" is a noun and "ruir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "raia" or "ruir"?
"raia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,104 in our Portuguese list, against #34,026 for "ruir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,523 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raia" and "ruir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ruir vs rust". 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 #9,523 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