fadavsfatiaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,188
“fada” frequency rank
#12,249
“fatia” frequency rank
22437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fada fatia
Definition entidade imaginária feminina e voadora, com poderes mágicos pedaço de alimento cortado em forma de lâmina com alguma espessura

Where the eye mixes fada and fatia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fada runs 4 letters (CVCV) against fatia's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
fada
5 ch
fatia

Why the eye confuses fada with fatia

A purely visual mix-up. fada (/ˈfa.dɐ/) and fatia (/fɐ.ˈti.ɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fada is recorded at frequency rank #10,188, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfa.dɐ/. fatia is at rank #12,249, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɐ.ˈti.ɐ/.

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 22437, this pair ranks #47,606 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fada vs fatia

Shared letters: af. Private to "fada": d. Private to "fatia": it.

"fada" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fatia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fada ← afda · faad · fadda · fdaa · ffada
  • fatia ← aftia · faita · fatai · fattia · ffatia · ftaia

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fada" and "fatia" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfa.dɐ/ versus /fɐ.ˈti.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fada" or "fatia"?
"fada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,188 in our Portuguese list, against #12,249 for "fatia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "fada" and "fatia" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fatia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,606 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fada" and "fatia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fatia vs fava". 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 #47,606 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