destavsdistalWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: desta is a contraction, distal is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“desta” is a contraction and “distal” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#364
“desta” frequency rank
#44,817
“distal” frequency rank
45181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desta distal
Definition contração da preposição de com o pronome ou determinante demonstrativo esta que se localiza longe do ponto de origem

Letter map: desta vs distal

Shared letters muted; letters that set desta and distal apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. desta runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against distal's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
desta
6 ch
distal

Grammar separator: desta vs distal

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: desta is acontraction and distalanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desta is recorded at frequency rank #364, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈdɛʃ.tɐ/. distal is at rank #44,817, 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 45181, this pair ranks #20,225 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of desta vs distal

Shared letters: adst. Private to "desta": e. Private to "distal": il.

"desta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "distal" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desta ← ddesta · desat · dessta · destta · detsa · dseta · edsta
  • distal ← ddistal · disatl · disstal · distall · distla · disttal · ditsal · dsital

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "desta" for "distal" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "desta" is a contraction and "distal" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "desta" or "distal" show up more?
"desta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #364 in our Portuguese list, against #44,817 for "distal". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "desta" and "distal".

  • Full dictionary entry for "desta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "distal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,225 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desta" and "distal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dial vs distal". 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 #20,225 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