dívidavsdúvidaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,873
“dívida” frequency rank
#1,358
“dúvida” frequency rank
4231
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dívida dúvida
Definition aquilo que se deve questionamento, indecisão

Letter map: dívida vs dúvida

Shared letters muted; letters that set dívida and dúvida apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. dívida and dúvida follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
dívida
6 ch
dúvida

Spelling & dictionary notes on dívida vs dúvida

dívida and dúvida 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 a single letter - í in “dívida” becomes ú in “dúvida”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4231, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dívida is recorded at frequency rank #2,873, classified as anoun. dúvida is at rank #1,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdu.vi.dɐ/.

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 4231, this pair ranks #70,751 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dívida vs dúvida

Shared letters: adiv. Private to "dívida": í. Private to "dúvida": ú.

"dívida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "dúvida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dívida" for "dúvida" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - í in “dívida” becomes ú in “dúvida”, 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 "dívida" or "dúvida" show up more?
"dúvida" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,358 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.

What to do next

Pair "dívida" vs "dúvida" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dívida" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dúvida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,751 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dívida" and "dúvida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dívida vs divido". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #70,751 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