doentevsduendeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,318
“doente” frequency rank
#21,149
“duende” frequency rank
23467
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature doente duende
Definition que tem a saúde alterada criatura do folclore ibérico, latino-americano e filipino

Letter map: doente vs duende

Shared letters muted; letters that set doente and duende apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. doente and duende follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
doente
6 ch
duende

Grammar separator: doente vs duende

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: doente is anadjective and duendeanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23467, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

doente is recorded at frequency rank #2,318, classified as anadj. duende is at rank #21,149, 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 23467, this pair ranks #46,362 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of doente vs duende

Shared letters: den. Private to "doente": ot. Private to "duende": u.

"doente" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "duende" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • doente ← ddoente · deonte · doenet · doennte · doentte · doetne · donete · odente
  • duende ← dduende · deunde · duedne · duendde · duened · duennde · dunede · udende

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "doente" and "duende" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "doente" is an adjective and "duende" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "doente" vs "duende" - which ranks higher?
"doente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,318 in our Portuguese list, against #21,149 for "duende". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "doente" and "duende".

  • Full dictionary entry for "doente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duende" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,362 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "doente" and "duende" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doente vs dormente". 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 #46,362 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