Which to use
“ruína” is a noun and “ruivo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,138
- “ruína” frequency rank
- #17,909
- “ruivo” frequency rank
- 35047
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ruína | ruivo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | um prédio ou local destruído, decaído | amarelo-avermelhado, louro-avermelhado |
Where the eye mixes ruína and ruivo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ruína and ruivo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: ruína vs ruivo
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ruína is /ˈʀwi.nɐ/ while ruivo is /ˈRuj.vu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ruína is recorded at frequency rank #17,138, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʀwi.nɐ/. ruivo is at rank #17,909, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈRuj.vu/.
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 35047, this pair ranks #32,080 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ruína vs ruivo
Shared letters: ru. Private to "ruína": aní. Private to "ruivo": iov.
"ruína" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "ruivo" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- ruivo ← riuvo · rruivo · ruiov · ruivvo · ruvio · urivo
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ruína" and "ruivo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ruína" or "ruivo" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ruína" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ruivo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #32,080 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ruína" and "ruivo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ruína vs ruma". 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 #32,080 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.