oravsórgãoTell them apart

Quick tell: ora is a adverb, órgão is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ora” is an adverb and “órgão” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,489
“ora” frequency rank
#2,659
“órgão” frequency rank
5148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ora órgão
Definition agora instrumento musical com teclado cujo som é formado pelo vento que passa por tubos

Letter map: ora vs órgão

Shared letters muted; letters that set ora and órgão apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ora
5 ch
órgão

Grammar separator: ora vs órgão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ora is anadverb and órgãoanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ora is recorded at frequency rank #2,489, classified as anadv. órgão is at rank #2,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɔrgɜ̃ũ/.

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 5148, this pair ranks #69,542 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ora vs órgão

Shared letters: or. Private to "ora": a. Private to "órgão": gãó.

"ora" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "órgão" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ora" for "órgão" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ora" is an adverb and "órgão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ora" vs "órgão" - which ranks higher?
"ora" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,489 in our Portuguese list, against #2,659 for "órgão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "ora" vs "órgão" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ora" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "órgão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,542 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ora" and "órgão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oni vs ora". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #69,542 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