aliarvsalinharTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,190
“aliar” frequency rank
#21,073
“alinhar” frequency rank
41263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aliar alinhar
Definition fazer ligação de dispor em linha reta

Where the eye mixes aliar and alinhar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. aliar runs 5 letters (VCVVC) against alinhar's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
aliar
7 ch
alinhar

Look-alike desk: aliar vs alinhar

A purely visual mix-up. aliar (/ɐ.ˈljaɾ/) and alinhar (/a.li.'ɲaχ/, /a.li.'ɲaː/) 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 41263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aliar is recorded at frequency rank #20,190, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈljaɾ/. alinhar is at rank #21,073, tagged as averb, pronounced /a.li.'ɲaχ/, /a.li.'ɲaː/.

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 41263, this pair ranks #24,690 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aliar vs alinhar

Shared letters: ailr. Private to "aliar": -. Private to "alinhar": hn.

"aliar" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "alinhar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aliarailar · alair · aliarr · alira · alliar · laiar
  • alinharailnhar · alihnar · alinahr · alinharr · alinhhar · alinhra · alinnhar · allinhar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aliar" for "alinhar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈljaɾ/ versus /a.li.'ɲaχ/, /a.li.'ɲaː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aliar" vs "alinhar" - which ranks higher?
"aliar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,190 in our Portuguese list, against #21,073 for "alinhar". 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 "aliar" and "alinhar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aliar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alinhar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,690 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aliar" and "alinhar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aliar vs atar". 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 #24,690 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