retovsretomaTell them apart

Quick tell: reto is a adjective, retoma is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reto” is an adjective and “retoma” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,954
“reto” frequency rank
#17,133
“retoma” frequency rank
28087
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reto retoma
Definition que não tem curvatura, sinuosidade ou inflexão; que segue sempre a mesma direção; direito, direto ato de retomar

Letter map: reto vs retoma

Shared letters muted; letters that set reto and retoma apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. reto runs 4 letters (CVCV) against retoma's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
reto
6 ch
retoma

Part-of-speech tell for reto / retoma

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: reto is anadjective and retomaanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “reto” sits inside “retoma”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reto is recorded at frequency rank #10,954, classified as anadj. retoma is at rank #17,133, tagged as anoun, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈtɔ.mɐ/.

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 28087, this pair ranks #40,782 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reto vs retoma

Shared letters: eort. Private to "reto": -. Private to "retoma": am.

"reto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "retoma" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reto ← erto · reot · retto · rreto · rteo
  • retoma ← ertoma · reotma · retmoa · retoam · retomma · rettoma · rretoma · rteoma

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reto" and "retoma" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reto" is an adjective and "retoma" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "reto" or "retoma"?
"reto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,954 in our Portuguese list, against #17,133 for "retoma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "reto" and "retoma".

  • Full dictionary entry for "reto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retoma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,782 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reto" and "retoma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ratio vs reto". 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 #40,782 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