infeçãovsintençãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,622
“infeção” frequency rank
#1,891
“intenção” frequency rank
42513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infeção intenção
Definition invasão de micro-organismos patogénicos o ato de escolher mentalmente um plano de ação a seguir

Letter map: infeção vs intenção

Shared letters muted; letters that set infeção and intenção apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. infeção runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against intenção's 8 (VCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
infeção
8 ch
intenção

Pair insight - infeção / intenção

infeção and intenção 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infeção is recorded at frequency rank #40,622, classified as anoun. intenção is at rank #1,891, 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 42513, this pair ranks #23,261 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of infeção vs intenção

Shared letters: einoãç. Private to "infeção": f. Private to "intenção": t.

"infeção" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "intenção" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "infeção" and "intenção" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "infeção" or "intenção" show up more?
"intenção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,891 in our Portuguese list, against #40,622 for "infeção". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "infeção" vs "intenção" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "infeção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intenção" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,261 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infeção" and "intenção" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infeção vs inflexão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #23,261 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