bailavsbolaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,025
“baila” frequency rank
#1,235
“bola” frequency rank
36260
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baila bola
Definition baile sólido esférico qualquer (ver esfera)

Letter map: baila vs bola

Shared letters muted; letters that set baila and bola apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
baila
4 ch
bola

Pair insight - baila / bola

baila and bola 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baila is recorded at frequency rank #35,025, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaj.lɐ/. bola is at rank #1,235, 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 36260, this pair ranks #30,604 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of baila vs bola

Shared letters: abl. Private to "baila": i. Private to "bola": o.

"baila" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "bola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bailaabila · baial · bailla · balia · bbaila · biala
  • bolabbola · bloa · boal · bolla · obla

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "baila" and "bola" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 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: "baila" vs "bola" - which ranks higher?
"bola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,235 in our Portuguese list, against #35,025 for "baila". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "baila" vs "bola" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "baila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,604 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baila" and "bola" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baila 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 #30,604 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