savanavssemanaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#22,793
“savana” frequency rank
#230
“semana” frequency rank
23023
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature savana semana
Definition formação vegetal característica das regiões tropicais onde é longa a estação seca, em que predominam plantas rizomatosas de tamanho grande e outras árvores e arbustos esparsos período de sete dias, com um dia de feriado de cunho religioso: sábado para os judeus, domingo para os cristãos e sexta-feira para os muçulmanos

Where the eye mixes savana and semana

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. savana and semana follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
savana
6 ch
semana

Visual trap between savana and semana

A purely visual mix-up. savana (/sɐ.ˈvɐ.nɐ/) and semana (/sɨ.ˈmɐ.nɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23023, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

savana is recorded at frequency rank #22,793, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɐ.ˈvɐ.nɐ/. semana is at rank #230, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɨ.ˈmɐ.nɐ/.

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 23023, this pair ranks #46,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of savana vs semana

Shared letters: ans. Private to "savana": v. Private to "semana": em.

"savana" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "semana" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • savana ← asvana · saavna · savaan · savanna · savnaa · savvana · ssavana · svaana
  • semana ← esmana · seamna · semaan · semanna · semmana · semnaa · smeana · ssemana

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "savana" and "semana" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɐ.ˈvɐ.nɐ/ versus /sɨ.ˈmɐ.nɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "savana" or "semana" show up more?
"semana" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #230 in our Portuguese list, against #22,793 for "savana". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "savana" and "semana" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "savana" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "semana" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "savana" and "semana" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sarna vs savana". 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 #46,879 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