regiãovsretidãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#289
“região” frequency rank
#44,095
“retidão” frequency rank
44384
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature região retidão
Definition território, área qualidade do que é reto

Where the eye mixes região and retidão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. região runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against retidão's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
região
7 ch
retidão

Look-alike desk: região vs retidão

A purely visual mix-up. região (/ʁe.ʒi.ˈãw/) and retidão (/Rɛ.ti.ˈdɐ̃w̃/) 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 44384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

região is recorded at frequency rank #289, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʁe.ʒi.ˈãw/. retidão is at rank #44,095, tagged as anoun, pronounced /Rɛ.ti.ˈdɐ̃w̃/.

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 44384, this pair ranks #21,116 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of região vs retidão

Shared letters: eiorã. Private to "região": g. Private to "retidão": dt.

"região" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV  ·  "retidão" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "região" for "retidão" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ʁe.ʒi.ˈãw/ versus /Rɛ.ti.ˈdɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "região" or "retidão"?
"região" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #289 in our Portuguese list, against #44,095 for "retidão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "região" and "retidão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "região" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retidão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,116 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "região" and "retidão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "resíduo vs retidão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,116 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