faiavsfobiaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,352
“faia” frequency rank
#25,673
“fobia” frequency rank
71025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faia fobia
Definition árvore alta e ramosa, geralmente da espécie Fagus sylvatica, e também o álamo ou choupo Populus nigra transtorno psicológico no qual a pessoa tem um medo ou aversão exagerado de alguma coisa

Where the eye mixes faia and fobia

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

4 ch
faia
5 ch
fobia

Why the eye confuses faia with fobia

A purely visual mix-up. faia (/ˈfaj.ɐ/) and fobia (/fu.ˈbi.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 71025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faia is recorded at frequency rank #45,352, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfaj.ɐ/. fobia is at rank #25,673, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fu.ˈbi.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 71025, this pair ranks #3,470 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faia vs fobia

Shared letters: afi. Private to "faia": -. Private to "fobia": bo.

"faia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "fobia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faia ← afia · faai · ffaia · fiaa
  • fobia ← fboia · ffobia · fobai · fobbia · foiba · ofbia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "faia" for "fobia" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfaj.ɐ/ versus /fu.ˈbi.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faia" or "fobia"?
"fobia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,673 in our Portuguese list, against #45,352 for "faia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "faia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fobia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,470 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faia" and "fobia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faia 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 #3,470 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