uai vs ui, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37,566
“uai” frequency rank: #19,875
“ui” frequency rank: 57441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	uai	ui
Definition	expressa surpresa, espanto ou suscita dúvida	exprime surpresa, admiração, repugnância

Letter map: uai vs ui

Shared letters muted; letters that set uai and ui apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

uai

2 ch

Pair insight - uai / ui

uai and ui are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

uai is recorded at frequency rank #37,566, classified as anintj. ui is at rank #19,875, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ˈuj/.

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 57441, this pair ranks #9,331 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of uai vs ui

Shared letters: iu. Private to "uai": a. Private to "ui": -.

"uai" · 3 letters · shape VVV · "ui" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "uai" for "ui" ever safe?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "uai" or "ui"?

"ui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,875 in our Portuguese list, against #37,566 for "uai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "uai" vs "ui" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "uai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #9,331 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"uai" and "ui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs uai". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #9,331 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.