traçãovstraídoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tração is a noun, traído is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tração” is a noun and “traído” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,629
“tração” frequency rank
#14,484
“traído” frequency rank
28113
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tração traído
Definition força aplicada sobre um corpo numa direção perpendicular à sua superfície de corte e num sentido tal que provoque a sua rotura que foi vítima de traição:

Where the eye mixes tração and traído

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tração (CCVCVV) and traído (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
tração
6 ch
traído

Visual trap between tração and traído

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tração is /tɾa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ while traído is /tɾɐˈi.dʊ/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28113, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tração is recorded at frequency rank #13,629, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɾa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. traído is at rank #14,484, tagged as anadj, pronounced /tɾɐˈi.dʊ/.

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 28113, this pair ranks #40,748 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tração vs traído

Shared letters: aort. Private to "tração": ãç. Private to "traído": dí.

"tração" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "traído" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tração" and "traído" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tração" is a noun and "traído" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "tração" or "traído" show up more?
"tração" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,629 in our Portuguese list, against #14,484 for "traído". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tração" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "traído" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,748 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tração" and "traído" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "traído vs travão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #40,748 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