águasvságuiaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,077
“águas” frequency rank
#8,843
“águia” frequency rank
10920
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature águas águia
Definition marés ave de rapina, diurna, de grande porte

Letter map: águas vs águia

Shared letters muted; letters that set águas and águia apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
águas
5 ch
águia

Pair insight - águas / águia

águas and águia are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

águas is recorded at frequency rank #2,077, classified as anoun. águia is at rank #8,843, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ɡjɐ/.

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 10920, this pair ranks #62,047 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of águas vs águia

Shared letters: aguá. Private to "águas": s. Private to "águia": i.

"águas" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "águia" · 5 letters · shape VCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "águas" and "águia" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "águas" or "águia" show up more?
"águas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,077 in our Portuguese list, against #8,843 for "águia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "águas" and "águia". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "águas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "águia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,047 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "águas" and "águia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "águia vs ateia". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #62,047 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