ruirvsrumaTell them apart

Quick tell: ruir is a verb, ruma is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ruir” is a verb and “ruma” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,026
“ruir” frequency rank
#44,577
“ruma” frequency rank
78603
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ruir ruma
Definition desmoronar, desabar expressa comandamento por parte de boiadeiro para guiamento de bois

Where the eye mixes ruir and ruma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ruir
4 ch
ruma

Look-alike desk: ruir vs ruma

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ruir is /ˈRwiɾ/ while ruma is /ˈxu.mɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78603, 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/. ruma is at rank #44,577, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ˈxu.mɐ/.

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 78603, this pair ranks #1,638 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ruir vs ruma

Shared letters: ru. Private to "ruir": i. Private to "ruma": am.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruirriur · rruir · ruirr · ruri · urir
  • rumarmua · rruma · ruam · rumma · urma

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ruir" and "ruma" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ruir" is a verb and "ruma" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ruir" or "ruma" show up more?
"ruir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,026 in our Portuguese list, against #44,577 for "ruma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ruir" and "ruma" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ruir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,638 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ruir" and "ruma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rimar 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 #1,638 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