agênciavsagoniaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,302
“agência” frequency rank
#13,652
“agonia” frequency rank
14954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agência agonia
Definition função ou escritório do agente agonia

Where the eye mixes agência and agonia

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

7 ch
agência
6 ch
agonia

Why the eye confuses agência with agonia

A purely visual mix-up. agência (/ɐ.ˈʒẽ.sjɐ/) and agonia (/ˈɑgoniɑ/) 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 14954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agência is recorded at frequency rank #1,302, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈʒẽ.sjɐ/. agonia is at rank #13,652, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɑgoniɑ/.

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 14954, this pair ranks #57,002 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agência vs agonia

Shared letters: agin. Private to "agência": cê. Private to "agonia": o.

"agência" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV  ·  "agonia" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agonia ← aggonia · agnoia · agoina · agonai · agonnia · aognia · gaonia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agência" for "agonia" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈʒẽ.sjɐ/ versus /ˈɑgoniɑ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "agência" vs "agonia" - which ranks higher?
"agência" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,302 in our Portuguese list, against #13,652 for "agonia". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agência" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agonia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,002 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agência" and "agonia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agência vs anuência". 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 #57,002 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