Which to use
“travão” is a noun and “travar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,127
- “travão” frequency rank
- #10,978
- “travar” frequency rank
- 58105
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travão | travar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | alavanca que detém o movimento de uma máquina | fazer parar com o travão, frear |
Where the eye mixes travão and travar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. travão (CCVCVV) and travar (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses travão with travar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: travão is /tɾa.'boŋ/ while travar is /tɾɐ.ˈvaɾ/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58105, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
travão is recorded at frequency rank #47,127, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɾa.'boŋ/. travar is at rank #10,978, tagged as averb, pronounced /tɾɐ.ˈvaɾ/.
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 58105, this pair ranks #8,943 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of travão vs travar
Shared letters: artv. Private to "travão": oã. Private to "travar": -.
"travão" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV · "travar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- travar ← rtavar · tarvar · traavr · travarr · travra · travvar · trravar · trvaar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "travão" for "travar" ever safe?
Frequency check: "travão" vs "travar" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "travão" and "travar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "travão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "travar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,943 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travão" and "travar" 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 #8,943 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.