ruirvsruleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,026
“ruir” frequency rank
#24,780
“rule” frequency rank
58806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ruir rule
Definition desmoronar, desabar ditar regras, fazer regras

Letter map: ruir vs rule

Shared letters muted; letters that set ruir and rule apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
ruir
4 ch
rule

Pair insight - ruir / rule

ruir 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ruir is recorded at frequency rank #34,026, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈRwiɾ/. 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 58806, this pair ranks #8,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ruir vs rule

Shared letters: ru. Private to "ruir": i. Private to "rule": el.

"ruir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "rule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruirriur · rruir · ruirr · ruri · urir
  • rulerlue · rrule · ruel · rulle · urle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ruir" and "rule" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "ruir" vs "rule" - which ranks higher?
"rule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,780 in our Portuguese list, against #34,026 for "ruir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "ruir" vs "rule" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ruir" 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 #8,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ruir" and "rule" 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 #8,531 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