febrevsferroTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,152
“febre” frequency rank
#2,093
“ferro” frequency rank
6245
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature febre ferro
Definition elevação da temperatura corporal como reação do organismo a uma doença elemento químico de símbolo Fe, possui o número atômico 26 e massa atômica relativa 55,845 u; é o quarto elemento mais abundante na crosta terrestre; é um metal duro e muito reativo, formando ligas com os mais diversos elementos

Letter map: febre vs ferro

Shared letters muted; letters that set febre and ferro apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
febre
5 ch
ferro

Spelling & dictionary notes on febre vs ferro

febre and ferro 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

febre is recorded at frequency rank #4,152, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɛ.bɾi/. ferro is at rank #2,093, 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 6245, this pair ranks #68,213 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of febre vs ferro

Shared letters: efr. Private to "febre": b. Private to "ferro": o.

"febre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "ferro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • febreefbre · fbere · febbre · feber · febrre · ferbe · ffebre
  • ferroefrro · fero · feror · fferro · frero

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "febre" and "ferro" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, 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 "febre" or "ferro" show up more?
"ferro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,093 in our Portuguese list, against #4,152 for "febre". 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 "febre" and "ferro".

  • Full dictionary entry for "febre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ferro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,213 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "febre" and "ferro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "febre vs fern". 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 #68,213 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