abavsabateWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“aba” and “abate” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,719
“aba” frequency rank
#16,656
“abate” frequency rank
32375
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aba abate
Definition parte saliente da beira das vestimentas, ou outros materiais de pano, para uso das pessoas, tais como vestido, paletó, toldo etc ato de abater

Where the eye mixes aba and abate

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
aba
5 ch
abate

Look-alike desk: aba vs abate

A purely visual mix-up. aba (/ˈa.bɐ/) and abate (/ɐ.ˈba.tɨ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “aba” sits inside “abate”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32375, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aba is recorded at frequency rank #15,719, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.bɐ/. abate is at rank #16,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈba.tɨ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 32375, this pair ranks #35,447 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aba vs abate

Shared letters: ab. Private to "aba": -. Private to "abate": et.

"aba" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "abate" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abateaabte · abaet · abatte · abbate · abtae · baate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aba" and "abate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈa.bɐ/ versus /ɐ.ˈba.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aba" vs "abate" - which ranks higher?
"aba" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,719 in our Portuguese list, against #16,656 for "abate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "abate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,447 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aba" and "abate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aba vs acs". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #35,447 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list