lesmavsletraWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,714
“lesma” frequency rank
#2,238
“letra” frequency rank
41952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lesma letra
Definition nome vulgar dos moluscos pulmonados da família dos Limacídeos (mais particularmente os do género Limax Cuvier) representação gráfica dos sons de um idioma

Where the eye mixes lesma and letra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lesma and letra follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
lesma
5 ch
letra

Visual trap between lesma and letra

A purely visual mix-up. lesma (/ˈleʒ.mɐ/) and letra (/ˈle.tɾɐ/) 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 41952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lesma is recorded at frequency rank #39,714, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈleʒ.mɐ/. letra is at rank #2,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈle.tɾɐ/.

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 41952, this pair ranks #23,894 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lesma vs letra

Shared letters: ael. Private to "lesma": ms. Private to "letra": rt.

"lesma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "letra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lesma ← elsma · lemsa · lesam · lesmma · lessma · llesma · lsema
  • letra ← eltra · lerta · letar · letrra · lettra · lletra · ltera

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lesma" and "letra" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈleʒ.mɐ/ versus /ˈle.tɾɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lesma" vs "letra" - which ranks higher?
"letra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,238 in our Portuguese list, against #39,714 for "lesma". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lesma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,894 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lesma" and "letra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lesma vs lhama". 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 #23,894 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