ratavsrateTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,790
“rata” frequency rank
#30,321
“rate” frequency rank
56111
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rata rate
Definition fêmea do rato; ratazana taxa

Letter map: rata vs rate

Shared letters muted; letters that set rata and rate apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
rata
4 ch
rate

Spelling & dictionary notes on rata vs rate

rata and rate are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “rata” becomes e in “rate”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56111, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rata is recorded at frequency rank #25,790, classified as anoun. rate is at rank #30,321, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪt/, SAMPA: /r\eIt/.

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 56111, this pair ranks #10,173 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rata vs rate

Shared letters: art. Private to "rata": -. Private to "rate": e.

"rata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rataarta · raat · ratta · rrata · rtaa
  • rateraet · ratte · rrate · rtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rata" and "rate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “rata” becomes e in “rate”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "rata" or "rate" show up more?
"rata" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,790 in our Portuguese list, against #30,321 for "rate". 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 "rata" and "rate".

  • Full dictionary entry for "rata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,173 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rata" and "rate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs rate". 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 #10,173 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