aviaçãovsaviãoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#9,005
“aviação” frequency rank
#2,262
“avião” frequency rank
11267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aviação avião
Definition área de atividades e pesquisa relacionadas com voo de aparelhos mais pesados que o ar aparelho mais pesado que o ar empregado em navegação aérea

Letter map: aviação vs avião

Shared letters muted; letters that set aviação and avião apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. aviação runs 7 letters (VCVVCVV) against avião's 5 (VCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
aviação
5 ch
avião

Corpus notes: aviação and avião

aviação and avião are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aviação is recorded at frequency rank #9,005, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.vjɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. avião is at rank #2,262, 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 11267, this pair ranks #61,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aviação vs avião

Shared letters: aiovã. Private to "aviação": ç. Private to "avião": -.

"aviação" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVV  ·  "avião" · 5 letters · shape VCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aviação" and "avião" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "aviação" vs "avião" - which ranks higher?
"avião" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,262 in our Portuguese list, against #9,005 for "aviação". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "aviação" vs "avião" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aviação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avião" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aviação" and "avião" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aipo vs avião". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #61,620 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