armaçãovsaviaçãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,177
“armação” frequency rank
#9,005
“aviação” frequency rank
21182
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature armação aviação
Definition ato ou efeito de armar área de atividades e pesquisa relacionadas com voo de aparelhos mais pesados que o ar

Where the eye mixes armação and aviação

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. armação (VCCVCVV) and aviação (VCVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
armação
7 ch
aviação

Look-alike desk: armação vs aviação

A purely visual mix-up. armação (/aχ.ma.ˈsɐ̃w/) and aviação (/ɐ.vjɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 21182, 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/. aviação is at rank #9,005, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.vjɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 21182, this pair ranks #49,153 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of armação vs aviação

Shared letters: aoãç. Private to "armação": mr. Private to "aviação": iv.

"armação" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "aviação" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "armação" for "aviação" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/aχ.ma.ˈsɐ̃w/ versus /ɐ.vjɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "armação" or "aviação"?
"aviação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,005 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "armação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aviação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,153 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "armação" and "aviação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "armação vs arrumação". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,153 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