robevsruleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: robe is a noun, rule is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“robe” is a noun and “rule” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,134
“robe” frequency rank
#24,780
“rule” frequency rank
67914
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature robe rule
Definition tipo de roupa feminina e confortável, de tecido leve, com uma abertura na parte da frente, normalmente utilizada sobre outra roupa; penhoar ditar regras, fazer regras

Letter map: robe vs rule

Shared letters muted; letters that set robe and rule apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
robe
4 ch
rule

Grammar separator: robe vs rule

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: robe is anoun and ruleaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67914, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

robe is recorded at frequency rank #43,134, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRɔ.bɨ/. rule is at rank #24,780, tagged as averb.

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 67914, this pair ranks #4,455 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of robe vs rule

Shared letters: er. Private to "robe": bo. Private to "rule": lu.

"robe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roberboe · robbe · roeb · rrobe
  • rulerlue · rrule · ruel · rulle · urle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "robe" and "rule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "robe" is a noun and "rule" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "robe" or "rule" show up more?
"rule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,780 in our Portuguese list, against #43,134 for "robe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "robe" and "rule". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "robe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,455 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "robe" and "rule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rabi vs robe". 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 #4,455 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