devidovsdívidaConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#563
“devido” frequency rank
#2,873
“dívida” frequency rank
3436
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devido dívida
Definition que se deve aquilo que se deve

Letter map: devido vs dívida

Shared letters muted; letters that set devido and dívida apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
devido
6 ch
dívida

Role in the sentence - devido and dívida

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: devido is anadjective and dívidaanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devido is recorded at frequency rank #563, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɨ.ˈvi.du/. dívida is at rank #2,873, 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 3436, this pair ranks #71,721 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of devido vs dívida

Shared letters: div. Private to "devido": eo. Private to "dívida": .

"devido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "dívida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devidoddevido · deivdo · devdio · deviddo · deviod · devvido · dveido · edvido

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "devido" and "dívida" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "devido" is an adjective and "dívida" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "devido" or "dívida" show up more?
"devido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #563 in our Portuguese list, against #2,873 for "dívida". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "devido" and "dívida".

  • Full dictionary entry for "devido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dívida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,721 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devido" and "dívida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devi vs devido". 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 #71,721 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