rolevsroseWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#10,958
“role” frequency rank
#4,517
“rose” frequency rank
15475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature role rose
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do presente do conjuntivo/subjuntivo do verbo rolar rosa, rosado

Where the eye mixes role and rose

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

4 ch
role
4 ch
rose

Visual trap between role and rose

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: role is /ˈxɔ.lɪ/ while rose is /ʀoz/ ouvir^(fonte ?). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “role” becomes s in “rose”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

role is recorded at frequency rank #10,958, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈxɔ.lɪ/. rose is at rank #4,517, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ʀoz/ ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 15475, this pair ranks #56,333 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of role vs rose

Shared letters: eor. Private to "role": l. Private to "rose": s.

"role" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "rose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roleorle · rloe · roel · rolle · rrole
  • roseorse · roes · rosse · rrose · rsoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "role" for "rose" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "role" is a verb and "rose" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "role" vs "rose" - which ranks higher?
"rose" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,517 in our Portuguese list, against #10,958 for "role". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "role" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,333 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "role" and "rose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reles vs role". 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 #56,333 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