Which to use
“on” is an adjective and “onda” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #675
- “on” frequency rank
- #2,059
- “onda” frequency rank
- 2734
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | on | onda |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ligado, ativo (na internet) | elevação e depressão da camada superficial de uma massa líquida; vaga |
Letter map: on vs onda
Shared letters muted; letters that set on and onda apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for on / onda
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: on is anadjective and ondaanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “on” sits inside “onda”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
on is recorded at frequency rank #675, classified as anadj. onda is at rank #2,059, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈõ.dɐ/.
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 2734, this pair ranks #72,541 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of on vs onda
Shared letters: no. Private to "on": -. Private to "onda": ad.
"on" · 2 letters · shape VC · "onda" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- onda ← noda · odna · onad · ondda · onnda
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "on" for "onda" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "on" or "onda" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "on" and "onda". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "on" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "onda" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,541 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "on" and "onda" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "onda vs oni". 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 #72,541 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.