ratevsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,321
“rate” frequency rank
#9,922
“ré” frequency rank
40243
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rate
Definition taxa segunda nota musical da escala de dó maior

Where the eye mixes rate and ré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
rate
2 ch
ré

Why the eye confuses rate with ré

A purely visual mix-up. rate (/ɹeɪt/, SAMPA: /r\eIt/) and (/ˈRɛ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rate is recorded at frequency rank #30,321, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹeɪt/, SAMPA: /r\eIt/. is at rank #9,922, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRɛ/.

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 40243, this pair ranks #25,915 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rate vs ré

Shared letters: r. Private to "rate": aet. Private to "ré": é.

"rate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ré" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rateraet · ratte · rrate · rtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rate" for "ré" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɹeɪt/, SAMPA: /r\eIt/ versus /ˈRɛ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "rate" or "ré" show up more?
"ré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,922 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,915 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rate" and "ré" 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 #25,915 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