porçãovsportaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,200
“porção” frequency rank
#832
“porta” frequency rank
8032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature porção porta
Definition parte de algo, pedaço, ração, dose: peça de madeira, metal ou vidro usada para fechar o buraco aberto numa construção por onde pessoas passam de um cômodo para outro ou de dentro para fora da construção

Where the eye mixes porção and porta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. porção runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against porta's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
porção
5 ch
porta

Look-alike desk: porção vs porta

A purely visual mix-up. porção (/puɾ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and porta (/ˈpɔɾ.tɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

porção is recorded at frequency rank #7,200, classified as anoun, pronounced /puɾ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. porta is at rank #832, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔɾ.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 8032, this pair ranks #65,901 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of porção vs porta

Shared letters: opr. Private to "porção": ãç. Private to "porta": at.

"porção" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "porta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • porta ← oprta · porat · porrta · portta · potra · pporta · prota

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "porção" and "porta" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/puɾ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /ˈpɔɾ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "porção" or "porta" show up more?
"porta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #832 in our Portuguese list, against #7,200 for "porção". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "porção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "porta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,901 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "porção" and "porta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "porção vs punção". 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 #65,901 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