rançovsroncoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#36,613
“ranço” frequency rank
#28,017
“ronco” frequency rank
64630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes ranço and ronco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ranço
5 ch
ronco

Why the eye confuses ranço with ronco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ranço is /ˈRɐ̃.su/ while ronco is /ˈRõ.ku/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64630, 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/. ronco is at rank #28,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRõ.ku/.

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 64630, this pair ranks #5,695 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ranço vs ronco

Shared letters: nor. Private to "ranço": . Private to "ronco": c.

"ranço" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "ronco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roncoornco · rnoco · rocno · roncco · ronnco · ronoc · rronco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ranço" for "ronco" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ranço" is an adjective and "ronco" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ranço" or "ronco" show up more?
"ronco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,017 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ranço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ronco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,695 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ranço" and "ronco" 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 #5,695 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