alcevsalfaceWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,754
“alce” frequency rank
#17,420
“alface” frequency rank
66174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alce alface
Definition mamífero artiodáctilo da família dos cervídeos (Alces alces), que ocorre nas regiões frias ao norte do hemisfério norte; de pelagem escura, ponta do focinho larga e arqueada e grande galhada espalmada, com numerosas pontas, presente somente nos machos [É o maior dos cervídeos, alcançando até 3 m de comprimento.] planta herbácea da família das Compostas muito utilizada em saladas; de nome científico: Lactuca sativa

Where the eye mixes alce and alface

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. alce runs 4 letters (VCCV) against alface's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
alce
6 ch
alface

Look-alike desk: alce vs alface

A purely visual mix-up. alce (/ˈaɫ.sɨ/) and alface (/aɫ.ˈfa.sɨ/) 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 66174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alce is recorded at frequency rank #48,754, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɫ.sɨ/. alface is at rank #17,420, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aɫ.ˈfa.sɨ/.

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 66174, this pair ranks #5,082 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alce vs alface

Shared letters: acel. Private to "alce": -. Private to "alface": f.

"alce" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "alface" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alce ← alcce · alec · allce · lace
  • alface ← aflace · alafce · alfacce · alfaec · alfcae · alfface · allface · laface

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alce" for "alface" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈaɫ.sɨ/ versus /aɫ.ˈfa.sɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "alce" vs "alface" - which ranks higher?
"alface" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,420 in our Portuguese list, against #48,754 for "alce". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "alce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alface" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,082 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alce" and "alface" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs alce". 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 #5,082 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