Which to use
“roer” and “ruir” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,138
- “roer” frequency rank
- #34,026
- “ruir” frequency rank
- 59164
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | roer | ruir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | triturar com os dentes; destruir | desmoronar, desabar |
Where the eye mixes roer and ruir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. roer and ruir follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between roer and ruir
A purely visual mix-up. roer (/ˈRweɾ/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
roer is recorded at frequency rank #25,138, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈRweɾ/. 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 59164, this pair ranks #8,332 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of roer vs ruir
Shared letters: r. Private to "roer": eo. Private to "ruir": iu.
"roer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "ruir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "roer" for "ruir" ever safe?
Which is more common, "roer" or "ruir"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "roer" and "ruir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "roer" 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 #8,332 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "roer" 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 #8,332 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.