ameaçavsameixaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,080
“ameaça” frequency rank
#28,442
“ameixa” frequency rank
30522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ameaça ameixa
Definition ato de ameaçar fruta extraída da ameixeira

Where the eye mixes ameaça and ameixa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ameaça and ameixa follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
ameaça
6 ch
ameixa

Why the eye confuses ameaça with ameixa

A purely visual mix-up. ameaça (/ɐ.ˈmja.sɐ/) and ameixa (/a.ˈmej.ʃɐ/) 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 30522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ameaça is recorded at frequency rank #2,080, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈmja.sɐ/. ameixa is at rank #28,442, tagged as anoun, pronounced /a.ˈmej.ʃɐ/.

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 30522, this pair ranks #37,802 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ameaça vs ameixa

Shared letters: aem. Private to "ameaça": ç. Private to "ameixa": ix.

"ameaça" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV  ·  "ameixa" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ameixaaemixa · ameiax · ameixxa · amexia · amiexa · ammeixa · maeixa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ameaça" for "ameixa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈmja.sɐ/ versus /a.ˈmej.ʃɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ameaça" or "ameixa"?
"ameaça" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,080 in our Portuguese list, against #28,442 for "ameixa". 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 "ameaça" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ameixa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,802 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ameaça" and "ameixa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ameixa vs ateia". 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 #37,802 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