armavsasaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,913
“arma” frequency rank
#7,104
“asa” frequency rank
9017
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arma asa
Definition instrumento usado para ataque e defesa membro de um animal que serve para o voo

Where the eye mixes arma and asa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
arma
3 ch
asa

Visual trap between arma and asa

A purely visual mix-up. arma (/ˈaɾmɐ/) and asa (/ˈa.zɐ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9017, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arma is recorded at frequency rank #1,913, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɾmɐ/. asa is at rank #7,104, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.zɐ/.

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 9017, this pair ranks #64,561 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of arma vs asa

Shared letters: a. Private to "arma": mr. Private to "asa": s.

"arma" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "asa" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • armaamra · aram · armma · arrma

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arma" and "asa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈaɾmɐ/ versus /ˈa.zɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "arma" or "asa" show up more?
"arma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,913 in our Portuguese list, against #7,104 for "asa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "arma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "asa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,561 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arma" and "asa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs asa". 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 #64,561 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