rançovsrankConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#36,613
“ranço” frequency rank
#26,533
“rank” frequency rank
63146
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: ranço vs rank

Shared letters muted; letters that set ranço and rank apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. ranço runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against rank's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
ranço
4 ch
rank

Part-of-speech tell for ranço / rank

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ranço is anadjective and rankanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ranço is recorded at frequency rank #36,613, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈRɐ̃.su/. rank is at rank #26,533, 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 63146, this pair ranks #6,332 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ranço vs rank

Shared letters: anr. Private to "ranço": oç. Private to "rank": k.

"ranço" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "rank" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rank ← arnk · rakn · rankk · rannk · rnak · rrank

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ranço" for "rank" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ranço" is an adjective and "rank" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ranço" or "rank" show up more?
"rank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,533 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.

What to do next

Pair "ranço" vs "rank" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ranço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rank" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,332 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ranço" and "rank" 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 #6,332 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