salmãovssalvaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,681
“salmão” frequency rank
#4,180
“salva” frequency rank
19861
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salmão salva
Definition peixe da família dos Salmodídeos amarelo-alaranjado planta das labiadas do género Salvia

Where the eye mixes salmão and salva

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

6 ch
salmão
5 ch
salva

Visual trap between salmão and salva

A purely visual mix-up. salmão (/saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/) and salva (/ˈsaɫ.vɐ/) 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 19861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salmão is recorded at frequency rank #15,681, classified as anoun, pronounced /saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/. salva is at rank #4,180, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsaɫ.vɐ/.

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 19861, this pair ranks #50,773 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salmão vs salva

Shared letters: als. Private to "salmão": moã. Private to "salva": v.

"salmão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "salva" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • salva ← aslva · salav · sallva · salvva · savla · slava · ssalva

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "salmão" and "salva" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/ versus /ˈsaɫ.vɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "salmão" or "salva"?
"salva" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,180 in our Portuguese list, against #15,681 for "salmão". 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 "salmão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "salva" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,773 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salmão" and "salva" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saldar vs salmão". 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 #50,773 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