belavsbestaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,837
“bela” frequency rank
#6,378
“besta” frequency rank
8215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bela besta
Definition bonito(a), lindo(a) diz-se de uma pessoa abobalhada ou ingênua

Letter map: bela vs besta

Shared letters muted; letters that set bela and besta apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. bela runs 4 letters (CVCV) against besta's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
bela
5 ch
besta

Spelling & dictionary notes on bela vs besta

bela and besta 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 8215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bela is recorded at frequency rank #1,837, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɛ.la/.. 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 8215, this pair ranks #65,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bela vs besta

Shared letters: abe. Private to "bela": l. Private to "besta": st.

"bela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "besta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bela ← bbela · beal · blea · ebla
  • besta ← bbesta · besat · bessta · bestta · betsa · bseta · ebsta

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bela" and "besta" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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.
Which is more common, "bela" or "besta"?
"bela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,837 in our Portuguese list, against #6,378 for "besta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bela" 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 #65,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bela" and "besta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bela 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 #65,652 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