amavsararWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ama is a noun, arar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ama” is a noun and “arar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,454
“ama” frequency rank
#46,176
“arar” frequency rank
47630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ama arar
Definition mulher que amamenta filho alheio lavrar (a terra) com arado

Where the eye mixes ama and arar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ama runs 3 letters (VCV) against arar's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
ama
4 ch
arar

Visual trap between ama and arar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ama is /ˈɐ.mɐ/ while arar is /ɐ.ˈɾaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ama is recorded at frequency rank #1,454, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɐ.mɐ/. arar is at rank #46,176, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈɾaɾ/.

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 47630, this pair ranks #17,601 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ama vs arar

Shared letters: a. Private to "ama": m. Private to "arar": r.

"ama" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "arar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arar ← aarr · ararr · arra · arrar · raar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ama" and "arar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ama" is a noun and "arar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ama" or "arar"?
"ama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,454 in our Portuguese list, against #46,176 for "arar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ama" and "arar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,601 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ama" and "arar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arar 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 #17,601 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