refraçãovsrelaçãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,575
“refração” frequency rank
#381
“relação” frequency rank
47956
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refração relação
Definition mudança na direção de propagação de uma onda devido a uma mudança no meio pelo qual ela transita relacionamento

Letter map: refração vs relação

Shared letters muted; letters that set refração and relação apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. refração runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against relação's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
refração
7 ch
relação

Corpus notes: refração and relação

refração and relação 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47956, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refração is recorded at frequency rank #47,575, classified as anoun, pronounced /Rɨ.fɾa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. relação is at rank #381, tagged as anoun.

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 47956, this pair ranks #17,265 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refração vs relação

Shared letters: aeorãç. Private to "refração": f. Private to "relação": l.

"refração" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "relação" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refração" and "relação" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "refração" vs "relação" - which ranks higher?
"relação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #381 in our Portuguese list, against #47,575 for "refração". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "refração" and "relação".

  • Full dictionary entry for "refração" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "relação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,265 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refração" and "relação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recriação vs refração". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,265 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