abadvsafãTell them apart

Which to use

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

#39,941
“abad” frequency rank
#47,702
“afã” frequency rank
87643
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abad afã
Definition abade, religioso superior de um mosteiro azáfama; ânsia; lida:

Where the eye mixes abad and afã

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. abad runs 4 letters (VCVC) against afã's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
abad
3 ch
afã

Visual trap between abad and afã

A purely visual mix-up. abad (/a'βad/) and afã (/ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87643, 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/. afã is at rank #47,702, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/.

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 87643, this pair ranks #474 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of abad vs afã

Shared letters: a. Private to "abad": bd. Private to "afã": fã.

"abad" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "afã" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abad ← aabd · abadd · abbad · abda · baad

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abad" and "afã" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/a'βad/ versus /ɐ.ˈfɐ̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "abad" or "afã" show up more?
"abad" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,941 in our Portuguese list, against #47,702 for "afã". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "afã" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #474 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abad" and "afã" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs afã". 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 #474 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