digitalvsdistalTell them apart

Which to use

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

#953
“digital” frequency rank
#44,817
“distal” frequency rank
45770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature digital distal
Definition relativo aos dedos que se localiza longe do ponto de origem

Letter map: digital vs distal

Shared letters muted; letters that set digital and distal apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
digital
6 ch
distal

Pair insight - digital / distal

digital and distal are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

digital is recorded at frequency rank #953, classified as anadj, pronounced /di.ʒi.ˈtaɫ/. 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 45770, this pair ranks #19,626 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of digital vs distal

Shared letters: adilt. Private to "digital": g. Private to "distal": s.

"digital" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "distal" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • digitalddigital · dgiital · diggital · digiatl · digitall · digitla · digittal · digtial
  • distalddistal · disatl · disstal · distall · distla · disttal · ditsal · dsital

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "digital" for "distal" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "digital" or "distal" show up more?
"digital" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #953 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "digital" 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 #19,626 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "digital" 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 #19,626 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