uai

intj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“uai” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #37,566) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#37,566
frequency rank, Portuguese
147
“U” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - expressa surpresa, espanto ou suscita dúvida

Corpus desk

Index PT-uai · uai · Portuguese

uai · rank #37,566 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #37,566
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 147
  • PHOTO-FINISH trimestral

Nearest frequency peer: trimestral (-4 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “uai”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “uai” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

uai vs um
33% similar
uai vs us
33% similar
uai vs uh
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for uai
PropertyValue
Headworduai
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechInterjection
Letters3
Frequency rank#37,566
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “uai”

A frequência vai do punhado de palavras do dia a dia (esquerda) à cauda longa quase nunca usada (direita).uaicai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

O eixo é logarítmico: cada tick marca cerca de dez vezes menos frequência. Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “trimestral” (#37,562), “valete” (#37,570), “torrado” (#37,555). Entre 147 lemas com “U”, “uai” fica em #37,566. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for uai is neighbouring look-alikes ("um", "us", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection. Frequency #37,566 among 147 “U” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

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

  1. 1
    expressa surpresa, espanto ou suscita dúvida
  2. 2
    expressa confirmação

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how uai appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Uai! O que aconteceu com ela?
  2. É isso, uai.

Synonyms

ué

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"?
"uai" is spelled U-A-I.
What does "uai" mean?
As an interjection, "uai" means: expressa surpresa, espanto ou suscita dúvida
What words are commonly confused with "uai"?
"uai" is commonly confused with "um", "us", "uh". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "uai" come from?
"uai" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "uai", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

wet#37,592ono#37,444Hut#37,363lew#37,890

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list