lavravslivreWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: lavra is a noun, livre is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lavra” is a noun and “livre” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,647
“lavra” frequency rank
#535
“livre” frequency rank
41182
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lavra livre
Definition lavoura o que tem a faculdade de agir ou não agir

Letter map: lavra vs livre

Shared letters muted; letters that set lavra and livre apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. lavra and livre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
lavra
5 ch
livre

Grammar separator: lavra vs livre

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lavra is anoun and livreanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lavra is recorded at frequency rank #40,647, classified as anoun. livre is at rank #535, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈli.vɾɨ/.

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 41182, this pair ranks #24,791 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lavra vs livre

Shared letters: lrv. Private to "lavra": a. Private to "livre": ei.

"lavra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "livre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lavra ← alvra · lavrra · lavvra · llavra · lvara
  • livre ← ilvre · lirve · liver · livrre · livvre · llivre · lvire

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lavra" for "livre" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lavra" is a noun and "livre" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lavra" or "livre" show up more?
"livre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #535 in our Portuguese list, against #40,647 for "lavra". 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 "lavra" and "livre".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lavra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "livre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,791 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lavra" and "livre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs lavra". 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 #24,791 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