intençãovsinternaçãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,891
“intenção” frequency rank
#23,018
“internação” frequency rank
24909
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intenção internação
Definition o ato de escolher mentalmente um plano de ação a seguir ato ou efeito de se internar

Letter map: intenção vs internação

Shared letters muted; letters that set intenção and internação apart highlighted. Shared run: 8. intenção runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVV) against internação's 10 (VCCVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
intenção
10 ch
internação

Corpus notes: intenção and internação

intenção and internação 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24909, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intenção is recorded at frequency rank #1,891, classified as anoun. internação is at rank #23,018, 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 24909, this pair ranks #44,542 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of intenção vs internação

Shared letters: einotãç. Private to "intenção": -. Private to "internação": ar.

"intenção" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "internação" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "intenção" and "internação" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 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 "intenção" or "internação" show up more?
"intenção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,891 in our Portuguese list, against #23,018 for "internação". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "intenção" and "internação".

  • Full dictionary entry for "intenção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "internação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,542 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intenção" and "internação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "internação vs interseção". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #44,542 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