porção vs posição, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#7,200
“porção” frequency rank: #715
“posição” frequency rank: 7915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	porção	posição
Definition	parte de algo, pedaço, ração, dose:	lugar, localização no espaço

Where the eye mixes porção and posição

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. porção runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against posição's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch

porção

7 ch

posição

Visual trap between porção and posição

A purely visual mix-up. porção (/puɾ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and posição (/pu.zi.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 7915, 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/. posição is at rank #715, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pu.zi.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 7915, this pair ranks #66,054 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of porção vs posição

Shared letters: opãç. Private to "porção": r. Private to "posição": is.

"porção" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "posição" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "porção" and "posição" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/puɾ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /pu.zi.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "porção" or "posição"?

"posição" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #715 in our Portuguese list, against #7,200 for "porção". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "porção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "posição" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #66,054 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"porção" and "posição" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "porção vs punção". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,054 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.