águavsaraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#254
“água” frequency rank
#21,083
“ara” frequency rank
21337
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature água ara
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 altar

Where the eye mixes água and ara

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
água
3 ch
ara

Look-alike desk: água vs ara

A purely visual mix-up. água (/ˈa.gwɐ/) and ara (/ˈa.ɾɐ/) 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 21337, 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/. ara is at rank #21,083, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ɾɐ/.

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 21337, this pair ranks #48,971 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of água vs ara

Shared letters: a. Private to "água": guá. Private to "ara": r.

"água" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "ara" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "água" and "ara" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈa.gwɐ/ versus /ˈa.ɾɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "água" vs "ara" - which ranks higher?
"água" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #254 in our Portuguese list, against #21,083 for "ara". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "água" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ara" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,971 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "água" and "ara" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ara". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #48,971 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