ranavsruínaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#31,117
“rana” frequency rank
#17,138
“ruína” frequency rank
48255
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rana ruína
Definition sol um prédio ou local destruído, decaído

Where the eye mixes rana and ruína

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

4 ch
rana
5 ch
ruína

Why the eye confuses rana with ruína

A purely visual mix-up. rana (/ɽáː.náː/) and ruína (/ˈʀwi.nɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48255, 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/. ruína is at rank #17,138, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʀwi.nɐ/.

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 48255, this pair ranks #16,935 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rana vs ruína

Shared letters: anr. Private to "rana": -. Private to "ruína": uí.

"rana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ruína" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rana" and "ruína" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɽáː.náː/ versus /ˈʀwi.nɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "rana" or "ruína" show up more?
"ruína" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,138 in our Portuguese list, against #31,117 for "rana". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rana" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruína" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,935 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rana" and "ruína" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs rana". 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 #16,935 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