réguavsrendaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,702
“régua” frequency rank
#2,162
“renda” frequency rank
20864
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature régua renda
Definition 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 obra de malha feita com fio de linho, seda, ouro ou prata com desenhos caprichosos

Where the eye mixes régua and renda

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
régua
5 ch
renda

Why the eye confuses régua with renda

A purely visual mix-up. régua (/ˈχɛ.gwə/) and renda (/ˈRẽ.dɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

régua is recorded at frequency rank #18,702, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈχɛ.gwə/. renda is at rank #2,162, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRẽ.dɐ/.

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 20864, this pair ranks #49,550 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of régua vs renda

Shared letters: ar. Private to "régua": gué. Private to "renda": den.

"régua" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "renda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rendaernda · redna · renad · rendda · rennda · rneda · rrenda

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "régua" for "renda" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈχɛ.gwə/ versus /ˈRẽ.dɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "régua" or "renda" show up more?
"renda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,162 in our Portuguese list, against #18,702 for "régua". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "régua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "renda" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,550 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "régua" and "renda" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reger vs régua". 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 #49,550 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