beatavsbestaTell them apart

Quick tell: beata is a noun, besta is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“beata” is a noun and “besta” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,328
“beata” frequency rank
#6,378
“besta” frequency rank
48706
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beata besta
Definition feminino de beato diz-se de uma pessoa abobalhada ou ingênua

Letter map: beata vs besta

Shared letters muted; letters that set beata and besta apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. beata (CVVCV) and besta (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
beata
5 ch
besta

Grammar separator: beata vs besta

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: beata is anoun and bestaanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “beata” becomes s in “besta”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beata is recorded at frequency rank #42,328, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbja.tɐ/. besta is at rank #6,378, tagged as anadj.

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 48706, this pair ranks #16,454 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of beata vs besta

Shared letters: abet. Private to "beata": -. Private to "besta": s.

"beata" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "besta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beata ← baeta · bbeata · beaat · beatta · betaa · ebata
  • besta ← bbesta · besat · bessta · bestta · betsa · bseta · ebsta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "beata" and "besta" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beata" is a noun and "besta" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "beata" or "besta" show up more?
"besta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,378 in our Portuguese list, against #42,328 for "beata". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "beata" vs "besta" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "beata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "besta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,454 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beata" and "besta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baga vs beata". 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 #16,454 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