brasavsbrasãoConfusable pair

Quick tell: brasa is a adjective, brasão is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#18,521
“brasa” frequency rank
#25,214
“brasão” frequency rank
43735
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brasa brasão
Definition que é muito belo emblema de pessoa ou família nobre

Where the eye mixes brasa and brasão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. brasa runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against brasão's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
brasa
6 ch
brasão

Visual trap between brasa and brasão

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: brasa is /ˈbɾa.zə/ while brasão is /bɾɐ.ˈzɐ̃w̃/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43735, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brasa is recorded at frequency rank #18,521, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɾa.zə/. brasão is at rank #25,214, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɾɐ.ˈzɐ̃w̃/.

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 43735, this pair ranks #21,884 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brasa vs brasão

Shared letters: abrs. Private to "brasa": -. Private to "brasão": oã.

"brasa" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "brasão" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brasa ← barsa · bbrasa · braas · brassa · brrasa · brsaa · rbasa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brasa" for "brasão" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brasa" is an adjective and "brasão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "brasa" or "brasão"?
"brasa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,521 in our Portuguese list, against #25,214 for "brasão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "brasa" and "brasão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brasa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brasão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,884 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brasa" and "brasão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brabo vs brasão". 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 #21,884 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