AcrevsaçudeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,136
“Acre” frequency rank
#16,686
“açude” frequency rank
22822
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Acre açude
Definition estado localizado no sudoeste da Região Norte do Brasil que faz fronteira ao norte com o estado do Amazonas, ao leste com o estado de Rondônia, ao sudeste com a Bolívia e ao sul e ao oeste com o Peru construção destinada a represar as águas de um rio

Where the eye mixes Acre and açude

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Acre runs 4 letters (VCCV) against açude's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Acre
5 ch
açude

Why the eye confuses Acre with açude

A purely visual mix-up. Acre (/ˈa.kɾɪ/) and açude (/ɐ.ˈsu.dɨ/) 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 22822, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Acre is recorded at frequency rank #6,136, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.kɾɪ/. açude is at rank #16,686, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈsu.dɨ/.

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 22822, this pair ranks #47,134 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Acre vs açude

Shared letters: ae. Private to "Acre": cr. Private to "açude": duç.

"Acre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "açude" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Acre ← accre · acer · acrre · arce · care

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Acre" for "açude" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈa.kɾɪ/ versus /ɐ.ˈsu.dɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Acre" or "açude" show up more?
"Acre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,136 in our Portuguese list, against #16,686 for "açude". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Acre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "açude" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,134 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Acre" and "açude" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acid vs açude". 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 #47,134 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