namevsnaveWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,931
“name” frequency rank
#4,499
“nave” frequency rank
13430
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature name nave
Definition nome parte do templo destinado aos fiéis

Where the eye mixes name and nave

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
name
4 ch
nave

Look-alike desk: name vs nave

A purely visual mix-up. name (/neɪm/) and nave (/ˈna.vɨ/) 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 a single letter - m in “name” becomes v in “nave”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13430, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

name is recorded at frequency rank #8,931, classified as anoun, pronounced /neɪm/. nave is at rank #4,499, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈna.vɨ/.

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 13430, this pair ranks #58,914 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of name vs nave

Shared letters: aen. Private to "name": m. Private to "nave": v.

"name" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nave" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nameanme · naem · namme · nmae · nname
  • naveanve · naev · navve · nnave · nvae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "name" for "nave" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/neɪm/ versus /ˈna.vɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "name" vs "nave" - which ranks higher?
"nave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,499 in our Portuguese list, against #8,931 for "name". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "name" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,914 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "name" and "nave" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nadie vs name". 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 #58,914 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