irmãvsirmãosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#939
“irmã” frequency rank
#1,336
“irmãos” frequency rank
2275
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature irmã irmãos
Definition aquela que em relação a outrem, possui os dois pais (o mesmo pai e a mesma mãe ao mesmo tempo) em comum plural de irmão

Letter map: irmã vs irmãos

Shared letters muted; letters that set irmã and irmãos apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. irmã runs 4 letters (VCCV) against irmãos's 6 (VCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
irmã
6 ch
irmãos

Pair insight - irmã / irmãos

irmã and irmãos 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 extra letter(s) - “irmã” sits inside “irmãos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

irmã is recorded at frequency rank #939, classified as anoun, pronounced /iɾ.ˈmɐ̃/. irmãos is at rank #1,336, 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 2275, this pair ranks #73,151 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of irmã vs irmãos

Shared letters: imrã. Private to "irmã": -. Private to "irmãos": os.

"irmã" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "irmãos" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "irmã" and "irmãos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “irmã” sits inside “irmãos”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "irmã" vs "irmãos" - which ranks higher?
"irmã" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #939 in our Portuguese list, against #1,336 for "irmãos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "irmã" and "irmãos".

  • Full dictionary entry for "irmã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "irmãos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,151 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "irmã" and "irmãos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imi vs irmã". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,151 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