gafe
The verdict
“gafe” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #36,467 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #36,467
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - ação ou palavra impensada que involuntariamente causa constrangimento ao autor e/ou às pessoas a ele próximas
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 | gafe |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #36,467 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gafe” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for gafe is 4 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #36,467 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "ação ou palavra impensada que involuntariamente causa constrangimento ao autor e/ou às pessoas a ele próximas".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for gafe, with forms such as "agfe", "gaef", and "gaffe". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "gay", "gás", "gato", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Portuguese form is gafe, spelled G-A-F-E.
Definition
- 1ação ou palavra impensada que involuntariamente causa constrangimento ao autor e/ou às pessoas a ele próximas
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: agfe,gaef,gaffe,gfae,ggafe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gafe - 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
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Using “gafe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is G-A-F-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “gay” - see the side-by-side comparison. gafe vs gay
- 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.