heravsheróiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,045
“hera” frequency rank
#2,683
“herói” frequency rank
24728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hera herói
Definition designação de várias plantas trepadoras indivíduo notável positivamente por seus feitos e/ou capacidades

Where the eye mixes hera and herói

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

4 ch
hera
5 ch
herói

Look-alike desk: hera vs herói

A purely visual mix-up. hera (/ˈɛ.ɾɐ/) and herói (/e.'ɾɔj/) 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 24728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hera is recorded at frequency rank #22,045, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛ.ɾɐ/. herói is at rank #2,683, tagged as anoun, pronounced /e.'ɾɔj/.

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 24728, this pair ranks #44,797 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hera vs herói

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "hera": a. Private to "herói": ió.

"hera" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "herói" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hera ← ehra · herra · hhera · hrea

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hera" and "herói" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɛ.ɾɐ/ versus /e.'ɾɔj/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hera" vs "herói" - which ranks higher?
"herói" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,683 in our Portuguese list, against #22,045 for "hera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "herói" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,797 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hera" and "herói" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hebe vs hera". 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 #44,797 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