RatvsrentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,067
“Rat” frequency rank
#42,188
“rent” frequency rank
79255
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Rat rent
Definition conselho aluguel

Where the eye mixes Rat and rent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
Rat
4 ch
rent

Visual trap between Rat and rent

A purely visual mix-up. Rat (/raːt/) and rent (/rɛnt/) 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 79255, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Rat is recorded at frequency rank #37,067, classified as anoun, pronounced /raːt/. rent is at rank #42,188, tagged as anoun, pronounced /rɛnt/.

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 79255, this pair ranks #1,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Rat vs rent

Shared letters: rt. Private to "Rat": a. Private to "rent": en.

"Rat" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "rent" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • renternt · rennt · rentt · retn · rnet · rrent

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Rat" for "rent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/raːt/ versus /rɛnt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Rat" or "rent"?
"Rat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,067 in our Portuguese list, against #42,188 for "rent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Rat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Rat" and "rent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rent 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 #1,531 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