aiavsaldaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,961
“aia” frequency rank
#30,810
“alda” frequency rank
70771
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aia alda
Definition criada para companhia vaga, onda marinha

Where the eye mixes aia and alda

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aia runs 3 letters (VVV) against alda's 4 (VCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
aia
4 ch
alda

Look-alike desk: aia vs alda

A purely visual mix-up. aia (/ˈaj.ɐ/) and alda (/ˈal.da/) 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 70771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aia is recorded at frequency rank #39,961, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈaj.ɐ/. alda is at rank #30,810, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈal.da/.

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 70771, this pair ranks #3,527 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aia vs alda

Shared letters: a. Private to "aia": i. Private to "alda": dl.

"aia" · 3 letters · shape VVV  ·  "alda" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alda ← adla · alad · aldda · allda · lada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aia" for "alda" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈaj.ɐ/ versus /ˈal.da/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aia" or "alda"?
"alda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,810 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alda" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,527 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aia" and "alda" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs aia". 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 #3,527 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