bilharvsbiliarWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#23,581
“bilhar” frequency rank
#35,041
“biliar” frequency rank
58622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bilhar biliar
Definition jogo que se pratica impulsionando com um taco bolas, de marfim ou material semelhante, sobre uma mesa retangular normalmente forrada de pano geralmente verde relativo à bile (bílis ou fel)

Letter map: bilhar vs biliar

Shared letters muted; letters that set bilhar and biliar apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
bilhar
6 ch
biliar

Grammar separator: bilhar vs biliar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bilhar is anoun and biliaranadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - h in “bilhar” becomes i in “biliar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bilhar is recorded at frequency rank #23,581, classified as anoun, pronounced /bi.ˈʎaɾ/. biliar is at rank #35,041, 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 58622, this pair ranks #8,634 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bilhar vs biliar

Shared letters: abilr. Private to "bilhar": h. Private to "biliar": -.

"bilhar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "biliar" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bilharbbilhar · bihlar · bilahr · bilharr · bilhhar · bilhra · billhar · blihar
  • biliarbbiliar · biilar · bilair · biliarr · bilira · billiar · bliiar · ibliar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bilhar" for "biliar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bilhar" is a noun and "biliar" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bilhar" or "biliar" show up more?
"bilhar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,581 in our Portuguese list, against #35,041 for "biliar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "bilhar" and "biliar". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bilhar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "biliar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,634 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bilhar" and "biliar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bailar vs biliar". 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 #8,634 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