EmavsermoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Ema is a noun, ermo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,695
“Ema” frequency rank
#43,878
“ermo” frequency rank
63573
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ema ermo
Definition prenome feminino que está só ou desacompanhado; solitário

Where the eye mixes Ema and ermo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
Ema
4 ch
ermo

Visual trap between Ema and ermo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ema is /ˈẽ.mɐ/ while ermo is /ˈeɾ.mu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ema is recorded at frequency rank #19,695, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈẽ.mɐ/. ermo is at rank #43,878, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈeɾ.mu/.

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 63573, this pair ranks #6,131 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Ema vs ermo

Shared letters: em. Private to "Ema": a. Private to "ermo": or.

"Ema" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ermo" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ermoermmo · erom · errmo · remo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Ema" and "ermo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ema" is a noun and "ermo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Ema" or "ermo" show up more?
"Ema" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,695 in our Portuguese list, against #43,878 for "ermo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ema" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ermo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,131 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ema" and "ermo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elio vs ermo". 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 #6,131 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