ré vs rei, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#9,922
“ré” frequency rank: #794
“rei” frequency rank: 10716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ré	rei
Definition	segunda nota musical da escala de dó maior	soberano; monarca; czar

Where the eye mixes ré and rei

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

2 ch

ré

3 ch

rei

Look-alike desk: ré vs rei

A purely visual mix-up. ré (/ˈRɛ/) and rei (/ˈRɐj/) 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 10716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ré is recorded at frequency rank #9,922, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRɛ/. rei is at rank #794, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRɐj/.

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 10716, this pair ranks #62,309 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ré vs rei

Shared letters: r. Private to "ré": é. Private to "rei": ei.

"ré" · 2 letters · shape CV · "rei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ré" and "rei" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ˈRɛ/ versus /ˈRɐj/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ré" or "rei" show up more?

"rei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #794 in our Portuguese list, against #9,922 for "ré". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "ré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "rei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #62,309 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ré" and "rei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ré vs robe". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #62,309 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.