infâmiavsinfânciaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,472
“infâmia” frequency rank
#1,932
“infância” frequency rank
50404
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infâmia infância
Definition abalo ou dano à boa fama período do desenvolvimento do ser humano, que vai do nascimento ao início da adolescência; meninice, puerícia

Where the eye mixes infâmia and infância

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. infâmia runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against infância's 8 (VCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
infâmia
8 ch
infância

Look-alike desk: infâmia vs infância

A purely visual mix-up. infâmia (/ĩ.ˈfɐ.mjɐ/) and infância (/ĩ.ˈfɐ̃.sjɐ/) 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 50404, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infâmia is recorded at frequency rank #48,472, classified as anoun, pronounced /ĩ.ˈfɐ.mjɐ/. infância is at rank #1,932, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ĩ.ˈfɐ̃.sjɐ/.

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 50404, this pair ranks #14,564 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of infâmia vs infância

Shared letters: afinâ. Private to "infâmia": m. Private to "infância": c.

"infâmia" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "infância" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "infâmia" for "infância" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ĩ.ˈfɐ.mjɐ/ versus /ĩ.ˈfɐ̃.sjɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "infâmia" or "infância" show up more?
"infância" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,932 in our Portuguese list, against #48,472 for "infâmia". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "infâmia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "infância" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,564 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infâmia" and "infância" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infame vs infâmia". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #14,564 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