alturavsauraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#905
“altura” frequency rank
#13,887
“aura” frequency rank
14792
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altura aura
Definition comprimento de um objeto medido da base até o topo vento brando e suave; aragem

Where the eye mixes altura and aura

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. altura runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against aura's 4 (VVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
altura
4 ch
aura

Why the eye confuses altura with aura

A purely visual mix-up. altura (/aɫ.ˈtu.ɾɐ/) and aura (/ˈaw.ɾɐ/) 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 14792, 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/. aura is at rank #13,887, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaw.ɾɐ/.

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 14792, this pair ranks #57,200 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of altura vs aura

Shared letters: aru. Private to "altura": lt. Private to "aura": -.

"altura" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "aura" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altura ← alltura · altrua · alttura · altuar · alturra · alutra · atlura · latura
  • aura ← arua · auar · aurra · uara

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "altura" and "aura" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/aɫ.ˈtu.ɾɐ/ versus /ˈaw.ɾɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "altura" or "aura" show up more?
"altura" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #905 in our Portuguese list, against #13,887 for "aura". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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 "aura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,200 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altura" and "aura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "audaz vs aura". 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 #57,200 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