portariavsportuárioTell them apart

Quick tell: portaria is a noun, portuário is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“portaria” is a noun and “portuário” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,389
“portaria” frequency rank
#39,327
“portuário” frequency rank
48716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portaria portuário
Definition entrada de um estabelecimento, seja comercial ou residencial ou condomínio, onde se recepciona pessoas, carros e/ou cargas; as entradas podem ou não ser controladas; pode ou não haver a presença de câmeras e/ou seguranças relativo a porto

Where the eye mixes portaria and portuário

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. portaria runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against portuário's 9 (CVCCVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
portaria
9 ch
portuário

Look-alike desk: portaria vs portuário

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: portaria is /puɾ.tɐ.ˈɾi.ɐ/ while portuário is /puɾ.ˈtwa.ɾju/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

portaria is recorded at frequency rank #9,389, classified as anoun, pronounced /puɾ.tɐ.ˈɾi.ɐ/. portuário is at rank #39,327, tagged as anadj, pronounced /puɾ.ˈtwa.ɾju/.

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 48716, this pair ranks #16,435 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of portaria vs portuário

Shared letters: ioprt. Private to "portaria": a. Private to "portuário": uá.

"portaria" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "portuário" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portaria ← oprtaria · poratria · porrtaria · portaira · portarai · portarria · portraia · porttaria

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "portaria" and "portuário" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "portaria" is a noun and "portuário" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "portaria" or "portuário" show up more?
"portaria" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,389 in our Portuguese list, against #39,327 for "portuário". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "portaria" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "portuário" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,435 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "portaria" and "portuário" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pontaria vs portaria". 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 #16,435 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