Which to use
“água” and “agulha” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #254
- “água” frequency rank
- #10,119
- “agulha” frequency rank
- 10373
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | água | agulha |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | substância (H₂O) líquida e incolor, insípida e inodora, essencial para a vida da maior parte dos organismos vivos e excelente solvente para muitas outras substâncias; óxido de hidrogênio | haste fina de metal, aguçada numa ponta e com um orifício onde se enfia a linha, para a costura |
Where the eye mixes água and agulha
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between água and agulha
A purely visual mix-up. água (/ˈa.gwɐ/) and agulha (/ɐ.ˈɡu.ʎɐ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
água is recorded at frequency rank #254, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.gwɐ/. agulha is at rank #10,119, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈɡu.ʎɐ/.
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 10373, this pair ranks #62,754 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of água vs agulha
Shared letters: agu. Private to "água": á. Private to "agulha": hl.
"água" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "agulha" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- agulha ← aggulha · agluha · aguhla · agulah · agulhha · agullha · auglha · gaulha
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "água" for "agulha" ever safe?
Frequency check: "água" vs "agulha" - which ranks higher?
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 "água" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agulha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #62,754 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "água" and "agulha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "afã vs água". 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 #62,754 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.