hum
/ˈũ/
The verdict
“hum” is a regularly-used Portuguese word, ranked #7,922 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #7,922
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - (com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa dúvida, receio, inquietação, reticência
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 | hum |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ˈũ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #7,922 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hum” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for hum is 3 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈũ/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,922 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for hum, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Hut", "hurt", "hush", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct Portuguese form is hum, spelled H-U-M.
Definition
- 1(com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa dúvida, receio, inquietação, reticência
- 2(com realização comumente mediana da vogal nasal) expressa compreensão
- 3(com realização mediana da vogal nasal) expressa apreciação com tom aprovativo, aprovação
- 4(com realização breve da vogal nasal e comumente prum tom agudo) expressa surpresa
- 5(com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa lamentação quando se dá conta ou se é informado de algo
This word in other languages
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 “hum”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is H-U-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈũ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Hut” - see the side-by-side comparison. hum vs Hut
- 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.