alegaçãovsalteraçãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,382
“alegação” frequency rank
#5,594
“alteração” frequency rank
16976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alegação alteração
Definition arrazoado em favor de uma causa o fato de alterar; modificação

Where the eye mixes alegação and alteração

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. alegação runs 8 letters (VCVCVCVV) against alteração's 9 (VCCVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
alegação
9 ch
alteração

Why the eye confuses alegação with alteração

A purely visual mix-up. alegação (/ɐ.lɨ.ɡɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and alteração (/aɫ.tɨ.ɾɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 16976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alegação is recorded at frequency rank #11,382, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.lɨ.ɡɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. alteração is at rank #5,594, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aɫ.tɨ.ɾɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 16976, this pair ranks #54,394 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alegação vs alteração

Shared letters: aeloãç. Private to "alegação": g. Private to "alteração": rt.

"alegação" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVV  ·  "alteração" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alegação" for "alteração" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.lɨ.ɡɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /aɫ.tɨ.ɾɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alegação" or "alteração"?
"alteração" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,594 in our Portuguese list, against #11,382 for "alegação". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alegação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alteração" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,394 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alegação" and "alteração" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abnegação vs alegação". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #54,394 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