armaçãovsarmárioWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,177
“armação” frequency rank
#6,612
“armário” frequency rank
18789
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature armação armário
Definition ato ou efeito de armar móvel, normalmente de madeira ou metal, e que normalmente apresenta portas e prateleiras

Where the eye mixes armação and armário

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

7 ch
armação
7 ch
armário

Why the eye confuses armação with armário

A purely visual mix-up. armação (/aχ.ma.ˈsɐ̃w/) and armário (/ɐɾ.ˈma.ɾju/) 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 18789, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

armação is recorded at frequency rank #12,177, classified as anoun, pronounced /aχ.ma.ˈsɐ̃w/. armário is at rank #6,612, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐɾ.ˈma.ɾju/.

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 18789, this pair ranks #52,118 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of armação vs armário

Shared letters: amor. Private to "armação": ãç. Private to "armário": iá.

"armação" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "armário" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "armação" for "armário" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/aχ.ma.ˈsɐ̃w/ versus /ɐɾ.ˈma.ɾju/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "armação" or "armário"?
"armário" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,612 in our Portuguese list, against #12,177 for "armação". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "armação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "armário" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,118 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "armação" and "armário" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "armação vs arrumação". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #52,118 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