pilhavspulgaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#9,233
“pilha” frequency rank
#30,315
“pulga” frequency rank
39548
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pilha pulga
Definition montão de coisas umas sobre as outras pulga

Letter map: pilha vs pulga

Shared letters muted; letters that set pilha and pulga apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. pilha and pulga follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pilha
5 ch
pulga

Pair insight - pilha / pulga

pilha and pulga are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pilha is recorded at frequency rank #9,233, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpi.ʎɐ/. pulga is at rank #30,315, tagged as anoun.

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 39548, this pair ranks #26,676 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pilha vs pulga

Shared letters: alp. Private to "pilha": hi. Private to "pulga": gu.

"pilha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pulga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pilha ← iplha · pihla · pilah · pilhha · pillha · pliha · ppilha
  • pulga ← pluga · ppulga · pugla · pulag · pulgga · pullga · uplga

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pilha" and "pulga" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "pilha" vs "pulga" - which ranks higher?
"pilha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,233 in our Portuguese list, against #30,315 for "pulga". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "pilha" and "pulga". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pilha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pulga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,676 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pilha" and "pulga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pola vs pulga". 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 #26,676 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