rastovsretoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,450
“rasto” frequency rank
#10,954
“reto” frequency rank
49404
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rasto reto
Definition vestígio da passagem de alguém ou de algum animal; indício, pegada, pista que não tem curvatura, sinuosidade ou inflexão; que segue sempre a mesma direção; direito, direto

Letter map: rasto vs reto

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

5 ch
rasto
4 ch
reto

Role in the sentence - rasto and reto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: rasto is anoun and retoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49404, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rasto is recorded at frequency rank #38,450, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRaʃ.tu/. reto is at rank #10,954, tagged as anadj.

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 49404, this pair ranks #15,601 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rasto vs reto

Shared letters: ort. Private to "rasto": as. Private to "reto": e.

"rasto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "reto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rasto ← arsto · rasot · rassto · rastto · ratso · rrasto · rsato
  • reto ← erto · reot · retto · rreto · rteo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rasto" for "reto" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rasto" is a noun and "reto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rasto" or "reto"?
"reto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,954 in our Portuguese list, against #38,450 for "rasto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "rasto" and "reto".

  • Full dictionary entry for "rasto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,601 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rasto" and "reto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rasto 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 #15,601 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