acnevsalceConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,830
“acne” frequency rank
#48,754
“alce” frequency rank
81584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acne alce
Definition condição que consiste em erupções da pele causadas por inflamações e acúmulo de secreção mamífero artiodáctilo da família dos cervídeos (Alces alces), que ocorre nas regiões frias ao norte do hemisfério norte; de pelagem escura, ponta do focinho larga e arqueada e grande galhada espalmada, com numerosas pontas, presente somente nos machos [É o maior dos cervídeos, alcançando até 3 m de comprimento.]

Where the eye mixes acne and alce

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. acne and alce follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
acne
4 ch
alce

Why the eye confuses acne with alce

A purely visual mix-up. acne (/ˈak.nɨ/) and alce (/ˈaɫ.sɨ/) 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 81584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acne is recorded at frequency rank #32,830, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈak.nɨ/. alce is at rank #48,754, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɫ.sɨ/.

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 81584, this pair ranks #1,145 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of acne vs alce

Shared letters: ace. Private to "acne": n. Private to "alce": l.

"acne" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "alce" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acne ← accne · acen · acnne · ance · cane
  • alce ← alcce · alec · allce · lace

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "acne" and "alce" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈak.nɨ/ versus /ˈaɫ.sɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "acne" or "alce" show up more?
"acne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,830 in our Portuguese list, against #48,754 for "alce". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alce" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,145 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acne" and "alce" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs alce". 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 #1,145 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