travadovstravãoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: travado is a adjective, travão is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,579
“travado” frequency rank
#47,127
“travão” frequency rank
66706
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature travado travão
Definition que está impossibilitado de se mover alavanca que detém o movimento de uma máquina

Letter map: travado vs travão

Shared letters muted; letters that set travado and travão apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
travado
6 ch
travão

Role in the sentence - travado and travão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: travado is anadjective and travãoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

travado is recorded at frequency rank #19,579, classified as anadj. travão is at rank #47,127, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɾa.'boŋ/.

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 66706, this pair ranks #4,891 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of travado vs travão

Shared letters: aortv. Private to "travado": d. Private to "travão": ã.

"travado" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "travão" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • travadortavado · tarvado · traavdo · travaddo · travaod · travdao · travvado · trravado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "travado" for "travão" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "travado" is an adjective and "travão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "travado" or "travão"?
"travado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,579 in our Portuguese list, against #47,127 for "travão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "travado" vs "travão" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "travado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "travão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,891 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "travado" and "travão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "talão vs travão". 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 #4,891 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