reunirvsruirWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,584
“reunir” frequency rank
#34,026
“ruir” frequency rank
37610
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reunir ruir
Definition unir de novo desmoronar, desabar

Where the eye mixes reunir and ruir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. reunir runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against ruir's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
reunir
4 ch
ruir

Visual trap between reunir and ruir

A purely visual mix-up. reunir (/Rju.ˈniɾ/) and ruir (/ˈRwiɾ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reunir is recorded at frequency rank #3,584, classified as averb, pronounced /Rju.ˈniɾ/. ruir is at rank #34,026, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈRwiɾ/.

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 37610, this pair ranks #28,961 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reunir vs ruir

Shared letters: iru. Private to "reunir": en. Private to "ruir": -.

"reunir" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "ruir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reunir ← erunir · renuir · reuinr · reunirr · reunnir · reunri · rreunir · ruenir
  • ruir ← riur · rruir · ruirr · ruri · urir

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reunir" and "ruir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/Rju.ˈniɾ/ versus /ˈRwiɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "reunir" or "ruir" show up more?
"reunir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,584 in our Portuguese list, against #34,026 for "ruir". 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 "reunir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,961 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reunir" and "ruir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ruir vs rust". 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 #28,961 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