comunavscomunhãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,979
“comuna” frequency rank
#10,862
“comunhão” frequency rank
20841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comuna comunhão
Definition na Idade Média, cidade que conseguia a independência de um feudo ato ou efeito de comungar

Where the eye mixes comuna and comunhão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
comuna
8 ch
comunhão

Visual trap between comuna and comunhão

A purely visual mix-up. comuna (/ku.ˈmu.nɐ/) and comunhão (/ku.mu.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/) 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 20841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comuna is recorded at frequency rank #9,979, classified as anoun, pronounced /ku.ˈmu.nɐ/. comunhão is at rank #10,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ku.mu.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/.

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 20841, this pair ranks #49,573 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comuna vs comunhão

Shared letters: cmnou. Private to "comuna": a. Private to "comunhão": .

"comuna" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "comunhão" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comunaccomuna · cmouna · communa · comnua · comuan · comunna · coumna · ocmuna

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "comuna" and "comunhão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ku.ˈmu.nɐ/ versus /ku.mu.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "comuna" or "comunhão" show up more?
"comuna" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,979 in our Portuguese list, against #10,862 for "comunhão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "comuna" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comunhão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,573 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comuna" and "comunhão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comuna vs comunais". 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 #49,573 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