searavsselaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,819
“seara” frequency rank
#24,788
“sela” frequency rank
48607
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seara sela
Definition campo de cereais espécie de assento, geralmente feito de couro, amarrado em volta do corpo do cavalo para facilitar a montaria

Where the eye mixes seara and sela

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. seara runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against sela's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
seara
4 ch
sela

Look-alike desk: seara vs sela

A purely visual mix-up. seara (/ˈsja.ɾɐ/) and sela (/ˈsɛ.lə/) 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 48607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seara is recorded at frequency rank #23,819, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsja.ɾɐ/. sela is at rank #24,788, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛ.lə/.

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 48607, this pair ranks #16,567 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of seara vs sela

Shared letters: aes. Private to "seara": r. Private to "sela": l.

"seara" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "sela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • seara ← esara · saera · seaar · searra · seraa · sseara
  • sela ← esla · seal · sella · slea · ssela

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "seara" and "sela" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsja.ɾɐ/ versus /ˈsɛ.lə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "seara" or "sela" show up more?
"seara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,819 in our Portuguese list, against #24,788 for "sela". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "seara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sela" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,567 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seara" and "sela" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sela vs senda". 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 #16,567 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