operáriavsoperárioWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: operária is a noun, operário is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“operária” is a noun and “operário” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,659
“operária” frequency rank
#11,692
“operário” frequency rank
30351
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature operária operário
Definition Mulher que trabalha em fábrica, indústria ou em atividades manuais mediante salário que diz respeito ao operariado:

Letter map: operária vs operário

Shared letters muted; letters that set operária and operário apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. operária and operário follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
operária
8 ch
operário

Role in the sentence - operária and operário

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: operária is anoun and operárioanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “operária” becomes o in “operário”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

operária is recorded at frequency rank #18,659, classified as anoun. operário is at rank #11,692, tagged as anadj.

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 30351, this pair ranks #38,026 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of operária vs operário

Shared letters: eioprá. Private to "operária": a. Private to "operário": -.

"operária" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVV  ·  "operário" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "operária" for "operário" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "operária" is a noun and "operário" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "operária" or "operário" show up more?
"operário" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,692 in our Portuguese list, against #18,659 for "operária". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "operária" vs "operário" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "operária" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "operário" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,026 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "operária" and "operário" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "operário vs operativo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #38,026 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