águiavsaiaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,843
“águia” frequency rank
#39,961
“aia” frequency rank
48804
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature águia aia
Definition ave de rapina, diurna, de grande porte criada para companhia

Where the eye mixes águia and aia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. águia runs 5 letters (VCVVV) against aia's 3 (VVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
águia
3 ch
aia

Why the eye confuses águia with aia

A purely visual mix-up. águia (/ˈa.ɡjɐ/) and aia (/ˈaj.ɐ/) 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 48804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

águia is recorded at frequency rank #8,843, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ɡjɐ/. aia is at rank #39,961, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaj.ɐ/.

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 48804, this pair ranks #16,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of águia vs aia

Shared letters: ai. Private to "águia": guá. Private to "aia": -.

"águia" · 5 letters · shape VCVVV  ·  "aia" · 3 letters · shape VVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "águia" and "aia" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈa.ɡjɐ/ versus /ˈaj.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "águia" or "aia"?
"águia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,843 in our Portuguese list, against #39,961 for "aia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "águia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,339 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "águia" and "aia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs aia". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #16,339 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