legvsluaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,059
“leg” frequency rank
#1,619
“lua” frequency rank
34678
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leg lua
Definition perna satélite natural da Terra, que se destaca no céu durante a noite

Where the eye mixes leg and lua

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
leg
3 ch
lua

Why the eye confuses leg with lua

A purely visual mix-up. leg (/lɛɡ/) and lua (/'lua/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34678, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leg is recorded at frequency rank #33,059, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɛɡ/. lua is at rank #1,619, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'lua/.

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 34678, this pair ranks #32,530 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leg vs lua

Shared letters: l. Private to "leg": eg. Private to "lua": au.

"leg" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lua" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leg" for "lua" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/lɛɡ/ versus /'lua/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "leg" or "lua" show up more?
"lua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,619 in our Portuguese list, against #33,059 for "leg". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "leg" and "lua" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,530 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leg" and "lua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leg vs Lied". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #32,530 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