rastovsrustWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#38,450
“rasto” frequency rank
#46,045
“rust” frequency rank
84495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rasto rust
Definition vestígio da passagem de alguém ou de algum animal; indício, pegada, pista ferrugem

Where the eye mixes rasto and rust

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

5 ch
rasto
4 ch
rust

Why the eye confuses rasto with rust

A purely visual mix-up. rasto (/ˈRaʃ.tu/) and rust (/ɹʌst/) 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 84495, 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/. rust is at rank #46,045, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹʌst/.

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 84495, this pair ranks #783 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rasto vs rust

Shared letters: rst. Private to "rasto": ao. Private to "rust": u.

"rasto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "rust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rastoarsto · rasot · rassto · rastto · ratso · rrasto · rsato
  • rustrrust · rsut · russt · rustt · ruts · urst

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rasto" and "rust" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈRaʃ.tu/ versus /ɹʌst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "rasto" or "rust" show up more?
"rasto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,450 in our Portuguese list, against #46,045 for "rust". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rasto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #783 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rasto" and "rust" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ruma vs rust". 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 #783 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