raivavsrapidaConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,906
“raiva” frequency rank
#47,038
“rapida” frequency rank
48944
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raiva rapida
Definition doença infecciosa aguda causada por um vírus de ARN da família dos rabdovírus, transmitida ao homem pela mordida de animais infectados, como o cão, gato, lobo etc., caracterizada por lesões do sistema nervoso central que provocam convulsão, tetania e paralisia respiratória; hidrofobia rápido, veloz, célere

Where the eye mixes raiva and rapida

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
raiva
6 ch
rapida

Why the eye confuses raiva with rapida

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: raiva is /ˈRaj.vɐ/ while rapida is /ra.ˈpi.da/.. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raiva is recorded at frequency rank #1,906, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRaj.vɐ/. rapida is at rank #47,038, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ra.ˈpi.da/..

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 48944, this pair ranks #16,173 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of raiva vs rapida

Shared letters: air. Private to "raiva": v. Private to "rapida": dp.

"raiva" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "rapida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raivaariva · raiav · raivva · ravia · riava · rraiva
  • rapidaarpida · raipda · rapdia · rapiad · rapidda · rappida · rpaida · rrapida

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "raiva" and "rapida" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "raiva" is a noun and "rapida" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "raiva" or "rapida" show up more?
"raiva" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,906 in our Portuguese list, against #47,038 for "rapida". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "raiva" and "rapida" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "raiva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rapida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,173 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raiva" and "rapida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rapa vs rapida". 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 #16,173 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