melhoravsmelhoriaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,023
“melhora” frequency rank
#5,653
“melhoria” frequency rank
10676
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature melhora melhoria
Definition melhorada, melhoramento, melhoria recuperação do estado anterior

Where the eye mixes melhora and melhoria

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
melhora
8 ch
melhoria

Look-alike desk: melhora vs melhoria

A purely visual mix-up. melhora (/mɨ.ˈʎɔ.ɾɐ/) and melhoria (/mɨ.ʎu.ˈɾi.ɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10676, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

melhora is recorded at frequency rank #5,023, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɨ.ˈʎɔ.ɾɐ/. melhoria is at rank #5,653, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɨ.ʎu.ˈɾi.ɐ/.

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 10676, this pair ranks #62,362 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of melhora vs melhoria

Shared letters: aehlmor. Private to "melhora": -. Private to "melhoria": i.

"melhora" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "melhoria" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • melhoraemlhora · mehlora · melhhora · melhoar · melhroa · mellhora · melohra · mlehora
  • melhoriaemlhoria · mehloria · melhhoria · melhoira · melhorai · melhorria · melhroia · mellhoria

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "melhora" and "melhoria" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/mɨ.ˈʎɔ.ɾɐ/ versus /mɨ.ʎu.ˈɾi.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "melhora" vs "melhoria" - which ranks higher?
"melhora" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,023 in our Portuguese list, against #5,653 for "melhoria". 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 "melhora" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "melhoria" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,362 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "melhora" and "melhoria" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "melhoras vs melhoria". 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 #62,362 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