abadvsAdamWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,941
“abad” frequency rank
#4,033
“Adam” frequency rank
43974
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abad Adam
Definition abade, religioso superior de um mosteiro Adão

Where the eye mixes abad and Adam

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. abad and Adam follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
abad
4 ch
Adam

Look-alike desk: abad vs Adam

A purely visual mix-up. abad (/a'βad/) and Adam (/ˈaːdam/.) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abad is recorded at frequency rank #39,941, classified as anoun, pronounced /a'βad/. Adam is at rank #4,033, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaːdam/..

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 43974, this pair ranks #21,592 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abad vs Adam

Shared letters: ad. Private to "abad": b. Private to "Adam": m.

"abad" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "Adam" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abad ← aabd · abadd · abbad · abda · baad
  • Adam ← aadm · adamm · addam · adma · daam

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abad" for "Adam" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/a'βad/ versus /ˈaːdam/.) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "abad" vs "Adam" - which ranks higher?
"Adam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,033 in our Portuguese list, against #39,941 for "abad". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "abad" and "Adam" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Adam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,592 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abad" and "Adam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abad vs atar". 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 #21,592 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