gazevsgeneTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,478
“gaze” frequency rank
#7,160
“gene” frequency rank
49638
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gaze gene
Definition tecido leve e transparente sequência de nucleotídeos do DNA que pode ser transcrita em uma versão de RNA

Where the eye mixes gaze and gene

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gaze and gene follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
gaze
4 ch
gene

Look-alike desk: gaze vs gene

A purely visual mix-up. gaze (/ˈɡa.zɨ/) and gene (/ˈʒɛ.nɨ/) 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 49638, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gaze is recorded at frequency rank #42,478, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡa.zɨ/. gene is at rank #7,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʒɛ.nɨ/.

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 49638, this pair ranks #15,346 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gaze vs gene

Shared letters: eg. Private to "gaze": az. Private to "gene": n.

"gaze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "gene" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gaze ← agze · gaez · gazze · ggaze · gzae
  • gene ← egne · geen · genne · ggene · gnee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gaze" for "gene" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɡa.zɨ/ versus /ˈʒɛ.nɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gaze" vs "gene" - which ranks higher?
"gene" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,160 in our Portuguese list, against #42,478 for "gaze". 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 "gaze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gene" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,346 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gaze" and "gene" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gain vs gaze". 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 #15,346 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