alcevsallyTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,754
“alce” frequency rank
#15,249
“ally” frequency rank
64003
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alce ally
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.] aliado:

Where the eye mixes alce and ally

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
alce
4 ch
ally

Look-alike desk: alce vs ally

A purely visual mix-up. alce (/ˈaɫ.sɨ/) and ally (/ˈæ.laɪ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64003, 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/. ally is at rank #15,249, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈæ.laɪ/.

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 64003, this pair ranks #5,956 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alce vs ally

Shared letters: al. Private to "alce": ce. Private to "ally": y.

"alce" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "ally" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alcealcce · alec · allce · lace
  • allyallyy · aly · alyl · laly

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alce" and "ally" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈaɫ.sɨ/ versus /ˈæ.laɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "alce" vs "ally" - which ranks higher?
"ally" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,249 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 "ally" 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 "ally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,956 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alce" and "ally" 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 #5,956 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