rolavsrollTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,582
“rola” frequency rank
#10,785
“roll” frequency rank
17367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rola roll
Definition pequena ave da família dos columbídeos, semelhante à pomba rolagem

Where the eye mixes rola and roll

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
rola
4 ch
roll

Why the eye confuses rola with roll

A purely visual mix-up. rola (/ˈɾo.lɐ/) and roll (/ɹoʊl/) 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 a single letter - a in “rola” becomes l in “roll”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rola is recorded at frequency rank #6,582, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɾo.lɐ/. roll is at rank #10,785, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹoʊl/.

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 17367, this pair ranks #53,899 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rola vs roll

Shared letters: lor. Private to "rola": a. Private to "roll": -.

"rola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "roll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rolarloa · rolla · rrola
  • rollorll · rlol · rroll

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rola" for "roll" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɾo.lɐ/ versus /ɹoʊl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rola" or "roll"?
"rola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,582 in our Portuguese list, against #10,785 for "roll". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rola" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roll" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,899 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rola" and "roll" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robe vs roll". 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 #53,899 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