arribavsarrobaConfusable pair

Quick tell: arriba is a adverb, arroba is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“arriba” is an adverb and “arroba” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,431
“arriba” frequency rank
#37,189
“arroba” frequency rank
77620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arriba arroba
Definition acima, para cima unidade de massa da antiguidade que equivale a, aproximadamente, 14,68 kg; atualmente atribui-se a um arroba o valor de 15 kg

Letter map: arriba vs arroba

Shared letters muted; letters that set arriba and arroba apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. arriba and arroba follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
arriba
6 ch
arroba

Part-of-speech tell for arriba / arroba

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: arriba is anadverb and arrobaanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “arriba” becomes o in “arroba”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arriba is recorded at frequency rank #40,431, classified as anadv. arroba is at rank #37,189, tagged as anoun.

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 77620, this pair ranks #1,838 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arriba vs arroba

Shared letters: abr. Private to "arriba": i. Private to "arroba": o.

"arriba" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "arroba" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arriba ← ariba · arirba · arrbia · arriab · arribba · rariba
  • arroba ← aroba · arorba · arrboa · arroab · arrobba · raroba

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arriba" for "arroba" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arriba" is an adverb and "arroba" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "arriba" or "arroba"?
"arroba" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,189 in our Portuguese list, against #40,431 for "arriba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "arriba" vs "arroba" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arriba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arroba" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,838 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arriba" and "arroba" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arroba vs arrotar". 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 #1,838 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