bidvsbuildWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,645
“bid” frequency rank
#21,098
“build” frequency rank
47743
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bid build
Definition licitação, lance (num leilão) a física de um corpo humano; constituição ou estrutura de um corpo humano

Where the eye mixes bid and build

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
bid
5 ch
build

Why the eye confuses bid with build

A purely visual mix-up. bid (/bɪd/) and build (/bɪld/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bid is recorded at frequency rank #26,645, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɪd/. build is at rank #21,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɪld/.

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 47743, this pair ranks #17,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bid vs build

Shared letters: bdi. Private to "bid": -. Private to "build": lu.

"bid" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "build" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • buildbbuild · biuld · buidl · buildd · builld · bulid · ubild

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bid" and "build" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/bɪd/ versus /bɪld/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bid" or "build" show up more?
"build" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,098 in our Portuguese list, against #26,645 for "bid". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "build" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bid" and "build" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bid 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 #17,491 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