role vs rule, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#10,958
“role” frequency rank: #24,780
“rule” frequency rank: 35738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	role	rule
Definition	primeira pessoa do singular do presente do conjuntivo/subjuntivo do verbo rolar	ditar regras, fazer regras

Letter map: role vs rule

Shared letters muted; letters that set role and rule apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch

role

4 ch

rule

Pair insight - role / rule

role and rule are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - o in “role” becomes u in “rule”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35738, 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/. 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 35738, this pair ranks #31,263 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of role vs rule

Shared letters: elr. Private to "role": o. Private to "rule": u.

"role" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

role ← orle · rloe · roel · rolle · rrole
rule ← rlue · rrule · ruel · rulle · urle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "role" and "rule" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by a single letter - o in “role” becomes u in “rule”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "role" or "rule"?

"role" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,958 in our Portuguese list, against #24,780 for "rule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "role" and "rule".

Full dictionary entry for "role" 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 #31,263 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"role" and "rule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rule 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 #31,263 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.