lenguavslenhaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,560
“lengua” frequency rank
#10,743
“lenha” frequency rank
60303
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lengua lenha
Definition língua qualquer pedaço de madeira utilizado como combustível

Letter map: lengua vs lenha

Shared letters muted; letters that set lengua and lenha apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. lengua runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against lenha's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
lengua
5 ch
lenha

Spelling & dictionary notes on lengua vs lenha

lengua and lenha 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60303, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lengua is recorded at frequency rank #49,560, classified as anoun. lenha is at rank #10,743, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɐj.ɲɐ/.

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 60303, this pair ranks #7,716 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lengua vs lenha

Shared letters: aeln. Private to "lengua": gu. Private to "lenha": h.

"lengua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "lenha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lengua ← elngua · legnua · lengau · lenggua · lenngua · lenuga · llengua · lnegua
  • lenha ← elnha · lehna · lenah · lenhha · lennha · llenha · lneha

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lengua" and "lenha" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "lengua" vs "lenha" - which ranks higher?
"lenha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,743 in our Portuguese list, against #49,560 for "lengua". 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 "lengua" and "lenha".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lengua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lenha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,716 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lengua" and "lenha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lengua vs línguas". 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 #7,716 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