devsdorTell them apart

Quick tell: de is a preposition, dor is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“de” is a preposition and “dor” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1
“de” frequency rank
#934
“dor” frequency rank
935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature de dor
Definition estabelece uma ligação entre duas palavras, (geralmente uma relação de subordinação), podendo expressar sensação desagradável:

Letter map: de vs dor

Shared letters muted; letters that set de and dor apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
de
3 ch
dor

Role in the sentence - de and dor

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: de is apreposition and doranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

de is recorded at frequency rank #1, classified as aprep, pronounced /ʤɪ/; /ˈde/ (em finais de frases interrogativas, exemplo: estamos falando de?). dor is at rank #934, tagged as anoun.

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 935, this pair ranks #74,693 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of de vs dor

Shared letters: d. Private to "de": e. Private to "dor": or.

"de" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "dor" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "de" and "dor" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "de" is a preposition and "dor" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "de" vs "dor" - which ranks higher?
"de" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1 in our Portuguese list, against #934 for "dor". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "de" and "dor". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "de" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,693 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "de" and "dor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dor". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #74,693 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