favela
/faˈvɛ.lɐ/
The verdict
“favela” is a regularly-used Portuguese word, ranked #6,063 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,063
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - nome popular da planta arbustiva Cnidoscolus phyllacanthus, euforbiácea, nativa de áreas de caatinga do nordeste brasileiro, mormente no sertão norte baiano, cujo fruto é uma cápsula que contém sem...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | favela |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /faˈvɛ.lɐ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #6,063 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “favela” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for favela is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /faˈvɛ.lɐ/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,063 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "nome popular da planta arbustiva Cnidoscolus phyllacanthus, euforbiácea, nativa de áreas de caatinga do nordeste brasileiro, mormente no sertão norte baiano, cujo fruto é uma cápsula que contém sem...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for favela, with forms such as "afvela", "faevla", and "faveal". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "fiável", "fivela", "flanela", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Portuguese form is favela, spelled F-A-V-E-L-A.
Definition
- 1nome popular da planta arbustiva Cnidoscolus phyllacanthus, euforbiácea, nativa de áreas de caatinga do nordeste brasileiro, mormente no sertão norte baiano, cujo fruto é uma cápsula que contém sementes oleaginosas e alimentícias, semelhantes às sementes de fava, adaptada para sobreviver às longas estiagens acumulando reservas de água e nutrientes nos caules e raízes, é portadora de espinhos como a maioria das xerófilas e, ainda, urticância ao toque
Synonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: afvela,faevla,faveal,favella,favlea,favvela,ffavela,fvaela
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of favela - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "favela"?
What does "favela" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “favela”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is F-A-V-E-L-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /faˈvɛ.lɐ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fiável” - see the side-by-side comparison. favela vs fiável
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.