Which to use
“ally” and “army” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,249
- “ally” frequency rank
- #7,594
- “army” frequency rank
- 22843
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ally | army |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | aliado: | forças armadas |
Where the eye mixes ally and army
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between ally and army
A purely visual mix-up. ally (/ˈæ.laɪ/) and army (/ˈɑɹ.mi/) 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 22843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ally is recorded at frequency rank #15,249, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈæ.laɪ/. army is at rank #7,594, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɑɹ.mi/.
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 22843, this pair ranks #47,102 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ally vs army
Shared letters: ay. Private to "ally": l. Private to "army": mr.
"ally" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "army" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ally" and "army" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "ally" vs "army" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ally" and "army" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ally" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "army" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #47,102 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ally" and "army" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alles vs ally". 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 #47,102 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.