regovsréguaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,864
“rego” frequency rank
#18,702
“régua” frequency rank
40566
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rego régua
Definition sulco que abre o arado instrumento de madeira, plástico ou qualquer outro material sólido com as faces planas e as arestas apropriadas para servirem de guia para se traçar linhas retas

Where the eye mixes rego and régua

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. rego runs 4 letters (CVCV) against régua's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
rego
5 ch
régua

Visual trap between rego and régua

A purely visual mix-up. rego (/ˈRe.ɡu/) and régua (/ˈχɛ.gwə/) 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 40566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rego is recorded at frequency rank #21,864, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRe.ɡu/. régua is at rank #18,702, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈχɛ.gwə/.

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 40566, this pair ranks #25,508 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rego vs régua

Shared letters: gr. Private to "rego": eo. Private to "régua": aué.

"rego" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "régua" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rego ← ergo · reggo · reog · rgeo · rrego

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rego" and "régua" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈRe.ɡu/ versus /ˈχɛ.gwə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "rego" or "régua" show up more?
"régua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,702 in our Portuguese list, against #21,864 for "rego". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rego" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "régua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,508 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rego" and "régua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rego vs revi". 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 #25,508 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