lealvslevyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: leal is a adjective, levy is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,202
“leal” frequency rank
#11,489
“levy” frequency rank
17691
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leal levy
Definition que cumpre as suas promessas arrecadação

Where the eye mixes leal and levy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
leal
4 ch
levy

Why the eye confuses leal with levy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leal is /ˈljaɫ/ while levy is /ˈlɛ.vi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leal is recorded at frequency rank #6,202, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈljaɫ/. levy is at rank #11,489, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛ.vi/.

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 17691, this pair ranks #53,492 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leal vs levy

Shared letters: el. Private to "leal": a. Private to "levy": vy.

"leal" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "levy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lealelal · lael · leall · lela · lleal
  • levyelvy · levvy · levyy · leyv · llevy · lvey

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leal" and "levy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leal" is an adjective and "levy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "leal" vs "levy" - which ranks higher?
"leal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,202 in our Portuguese list, against #11,489 for "levy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "levy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,492 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leal" and "levy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leal vs least". 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 #53,492 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