rodovsrudeTell them apart

Quick tell: rodo is a verb, rude is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rodo” is a verb and “rude” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,079
“rodo” frequency rank
#14,023
“rude” frequency rank
51102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rodo rude
Definition roer áspero, descortês

Where the eye mixes rodo and rude

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

4 ch
rodo
4 ch
rude

Visual trap between rodo and rude

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rodo is /ˈroː.doː/ while rude is /ˈRu.dɨ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rodo is recorded at frequency rank #37,079, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈroː.doː/. rude is at rank #14,023, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈRu.dɨ/.

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 51102, this pair ranks #13,899 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rodo vs rude

Shared letters: dr. Private to "rodo": o. Private to "rude": eu.

"rodo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rude" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rodoordo · rdoo · roddo · rood · rrodo
  • ruderdue · rrude · rudde · rued · urde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rodo" and "rude" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rodo" is a verb and "rude" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "rodo" vs "rude" - which ranks higher?
"rude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,023 in our Portuguese list, against #37,079 for "rodo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "rodo" and "rude" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rodo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rude" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,899 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rodo" and "rude" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robe vs rodo". 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 #13,899 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