ImamvsIrãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,047
“Imam” frequency rank
#1,785
“Irão” frequency rank
43832
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Imam Irão
Definition imã país do Oriente Médio, com nome oficial de República Islâmica do Irão, tem fronteiras com a Armênia, Azerbaijão, Turquemenistão, Afeganistão, Paquistão, Iraque e Turquia, é banhado ao norte pelo mar Cáspio, ao sul pelo golfo de Omã e ao sudoeste pelo golfo Pérsico, sua capital é Teerão

Letter map: Imam vs Irão

Shared letters muted; letters that set Imam and Irão apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. Imam (VCVC) and Irão (VCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Imam
4 ch
Irão

Corpus notes: Imam and Irão

Imam and Irão 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Imam is recorded at frequency rank #42,047, classified as anoun, pronounced /iˈmaːm/. Irão is at rank #1,785, 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 43832, this pair ranks #21,749 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Imam vs Irão

Shared letters: i. Private to "Imam": am. Private to "Irão": orã.

"Imam" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "Irão" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Imam ← iamm · imamm · imma · immam · miam

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Imam" and "Irão" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Imam" vs "Irão" - which ranks higher?
"Irão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,785 in our Portuguese list, against #42,047 for "Imam". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "Imam" vs "Irão" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Imam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Irão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,749 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Imam" and "Irão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Imam vs imi". 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 #21,749 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