ranavsrançoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#31,117
“rana” frequency rank
#36,613
“ranço” frequency rank
67730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rana ranço
Definition sol aquela comida ou gordura que em contato com o ar tornou de sabor acre

Where the eye mixes rana and ranço

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. rana runs 4 letters (CVCV) against ranço's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
rana
5 ch
ranço

Visual trap between rana and ranço

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rana is /ɽáː.náː/ while ranço is /ˈRɐ̃.su/. 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 67730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rana is recorded at frequency rank #31,117, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɽáː.náː/. ranço is at rank #36,613, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈRɐ̃.su/.

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 67730, this pair ranks #4,525 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rana vs ranço

Shared letters: anr. Private to "rana": -. Private to "ranço": oç.

"rana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ranço" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rana ← arna · raan · ranna · rnaa · rrana

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rana" and "ranço" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rana" is a noun and "ranço" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rana" or "ranço"?
"rana" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,117 in our Portuguese list, against #36,613 for "ranço". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rana" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ranço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,525 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rana" and "ranço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ranço vs ratio". 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 #4,525 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