olá
/o.'la/
The verdict
“olá” is a regularly-used Portuguese word, ranked #1,198 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #1,198
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - usa-se ao encontrar alguém, como saudação
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 | olá |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /o.'la/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #1,198 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “olá” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for olá is 3 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /o.'la/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,198 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
olá has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "os", "ou", "on", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Portuguese form is olá, spelled O-L-Á.
Definition
- 1usa-se ao encontrar alguém, como saudação
- 2também pode ser dito para chamar a atenção
Synonyms
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
How do you spell "olá"?
What does "olá" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "olá"?
How do you pronounce "olá"?
What language does "olá" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “olá”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is O-L-Á - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /o.'la/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “os” - see the side-by-side comparison. olá vs os
- 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.