fobiavsfolhaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#25,673
“fobia” frequency rank
#1,930
“folha” frequency rank
27603
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fobia folha
Definition transtorno psicológico no qual a pessoa tem um medo ou aversão exagerado de alguma coisa órgão da planta, geralmente verde e responsável pela fotossíntese (na maioria das vezes), composta de limbo (estrutura laminar), pecíolo (haste que liga o limbo ao caule) e, algumas vezes, bainha (invólucro alongado na base do pecíolo)

Where the eye mixes fobia and folha

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fobia (CVCVV) and folha (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
fobia
5 ch
folha

Visual trap between fobia and folha

A purely visual mix-up. fobia (/fu.ˈbi.ɐ/) and folha (/ˈfo.ʎɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fobia is recorded at frequency rank #25,673, classified as anoun, pronounced /fu.ˈbi.ɐ/. folha is at rank #1,930, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfo.ʎɐ/.

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 27603, this pair ranks #41,344 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fobia vs folha

Shared letters: afo. Private to "fobia": bi. Private to "folha": hl.

"fobia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "folha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fobia ← fboia · ffobia · fobai · fobbia · foiba · ofbia
  • folha ← ffolha · floha · fohla · folah · folhha · follha · oflha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fobia" for "folha" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/fu.ˈbi.ɐ/ versus /ˈfo.ʎɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fobia" or "folha"?
"folha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,930 in our Portuguese list, against #25,673 for "fobia". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fobia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "folha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,344 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fobia" and "folha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faia vs fobia". 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 #41,344 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