alturavsalvaráWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#905
“altura” frequency rank
#17,689
“alvará” frequency rank
18594
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altura alvará
Definition comprimento de um objeto medido da base até o topo documento emitido por autoridade administrativa ou judiciária que ordena ou permite determinado ato

Where the eye mixes altura and alvará

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. altura and alvará follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
altura
6 ch
alvará

Look-alike desk: altura vs alvará

A purely visual mix-up. altura (/aɫ.ˈtu.ɾɐ/) and alvará (/aɫ.vɐ.ˈɾa/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altura is recorded at frequency rank #905, classified as anoun, pronounced /aɫ.ˈtu.ɾɐ/. alvará is at rank #17,689, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aɫ.vɐ.ˈɾa/.

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 18594, this pair ranks #52,356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of altura vs alvará

Shared letters: alr. Private to "altura": tu. Private to "alvará": vá.

"altura" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "alvará" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altura ← alltura · altrua · alttura · altuar · alturra · alutra · atlura · latura

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "altura" for "alvará" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/aɫ.ˈtu.ɾɐ/ versus /aɫ.vɐ.ˈɾa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "altura" vs "alvará" - which ranks higher?
"altura" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #905 in our Portuguese list, against #17,689 for "alvará". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "altura" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alvará" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altura" and "alvará" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alçar vs alvará". 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 #52,356 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