uai
The verdict
“uai” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #37,566 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #37,566
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - expressa surpresa, espanto ou suscita dúvida
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 | uai |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #37,566 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “uai” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for uai is 3 letters long, classified as an interjection. Corpus data places it at rank #37,566 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for uai in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular Portuguese conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "um", "us", "uh", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct Portuguese form is uai, spelled U-A-I.
Definition
- 1expressa surpresa, espanto ou suscita dúvida
- 2expressa confirmação
Synonyms
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 "uai"?
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Using “uai”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is U-A-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “um” - see the side-by-side comparison. uai vs um
- 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.