badvsbiasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,699
“bad” frequency rank
#42,337
“bias” frequency rank
47036
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bad bias
Definition banho tendência ou distorção do julgamento de um observador por estar ele envolvido com o objeto de observação

Where the eye mixes bad and bias

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

3 ch
bad
4 ch
bias

Visual trap between bad and bias

A purely visual mix-up. bad (/bɑt/) and bias (/ˈbi.ɐs/) 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 47036, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bad is recorded at frequency rank #4,699, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɑt/. bias is at rank #42,337, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbi.ɐs/.

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 47036, this pair ranks #18,252 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bad vs bias

Shared letters: ab. Private to "bad": d. Private to "bias": is.

"bad" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "bias" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • biasbais · bbias · biass · bisa · ibas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bad" for "bias" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bɑt/ versus /ˈbi.ɐs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bad" or "bias"?
"bad" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,699 in our Portuguese list, against #42,337 for "bias". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bias" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,252 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bad" and "bias" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bias vs bile". 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 #18,252 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