Which to use
“lengua” and “língua” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,560
- “lengua” frequency rank
- #536
- “língua” frequency rank
- 50096
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lengua | língua |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | língua | órgão da boca, auxiliar da mastigação e deglutição e responsável pela articulação dos sons; órgão da fala |
Letter map: lengua vs língua
Shared letters muted; letters that set lengua and língua apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. lengua and língua follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Spelling & dictionary notes on lengua vs língua
lengua and língua 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 a single letter - e in “lengua” becomes í in “língua”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lengua is recorded at frequency rank #49,560, classified as anoun. língua is at rank #536, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlĩ.ɡwɐ/.
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 50096, this pair ranks #14,887 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lengua vs língua
Shared letters: aglnu. Private to "lengua": e. Private to "língua": í.
"lengua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "língua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lengua ← elngua · legnua · lengau · lenggua · lenngua · lenuga · llengua · lnegua
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lengua" and "língua" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lengua" or "língua" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "lengua" and "língua". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "lengua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "língua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #14,887 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lengua" and "língua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lengua vs lenha". 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 #14,887 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.