oravsotaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ora is a adverb, ota is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,489
“ora” frequency rank
#31,082
“ota” frequency rank
33571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ora ota
Definition agora expressa regozijo pela dor ou sofrimento alheio

Letter map: ora vs ota

Shared letters muted; letters that set ora and ota apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
ora
3 ch
ota

Role in the sentence - ora and ota

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ora is anadverb and otaanintj. On the page they differ by a single letter - r in “ora” becomes t in “ota”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ora is recorded at frequency rank #2,489, classified as anadv. ota is at rank #31,082, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ˈo.tɐ/.

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 33571, this pair ranks #33,906 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ora vs ota

Shared letters: ao. Private to "ora": r. Private to "ota": t.

"ora" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ota" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ora" and "ota" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ora" is an adverb and "ota" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ora" or "ota" show up more?
"ora" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,489 in our Portuguese list, against #31,082 for "ota". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ora" and "ota".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ora" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ota" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,906 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ora" and "ota" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oni vs ota". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #33,906 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