adiçãovsambiçãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,565
“adição” frequency rank
#9,795
“ambição” frequency rank
18360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adição ambição
Definition ato ou efeito de adir desejo forte de fortuna, de glória, de honrarias, de poder ou de outra coisa qualquer, dependendo do contexto

Where the eye mixes adição and ambição

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. adição runs 6 letters (VCVCVV) against ambição's 7 (VCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
adição
7 ch
ambição

Visual trap between adição and ambição

A purely visual mix-up. adição (/ɐ.di.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and ambição (/ɐ̃.bi.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 18360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adição is recorded at frequency rank #8,565, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.di.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. ambição is at rank #9,795, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ̃.bi.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 18360, this pair ranks #52,641 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of adição vs ambição

Shared letters: aioãç. Private to "adição": d. Private to "ambição": bm.

"adição" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV  ·  "ambição" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "adição" for "ambição" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.di.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /ɐ̃.bi.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "adição" vs "ambição" - which ranks higher?
"adição" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,565 in our Portuguese list, against #9,795 for "ambição". 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 "adição" and "ambição" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "adição" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ambição" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,641 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adição" and "ambição" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abdução vs adição". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #52,641 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