filavsfindWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fila is a noun, find is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fila” is a noun and “find” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,079
“fila” frequency rank
#9,055
“find” frequency rank
12134
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fila find
Definition sequência de pessoas ou coisas dispostas de forma organizada, em linha; enfiada encontrar

Where the eye mixes fila and find

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

4 ch
fila
4 ch
find

Why the eye confuses fila with find

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fila is /ˈfi.lɐ/ while find is /ˈfaɪnd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fila is recorded at frequency rank #3,079, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfi.lɐ/. find is at rank #9,055, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfaɪnd/.

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 12134, this pair ranks #60,545 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fila vs find

Shared letters: fi. Private to "fila": al. Private to "find": dn.

"fila" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "find" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filaffila · fial · filla · flia · ifla
  • findffind · fidn · findd · finnd · fnid · ifnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fila" for "find" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fila" is a noun and "find" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "fila" or "find" show up more?
"fila" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,079 in our Portuguese list, against #9,055 for "find". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "find" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,545 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fila" and "find" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "find vs finta". 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 #60,545 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