univsunidoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: uni is a verb, unido is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“uni” is a verb and “unido” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,214
“uni” frequency rank
#2,296
“unido” frequency rank
20510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature uni unido
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo unir junto

Where the eye mixes uni and unido

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

3 ch
uni
5 ch
unido

Look-alike desk: uni vs unido

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: uni is /ʊ.ˈni/ while unido is /u.ˈni.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “uni” sits inside “unido”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

uni is recorded at frequency rank #18,214, classified as averb, pronounced /ʊ.ˈni/. unido is at rank #2,296, tagged as anadj, pronounced /u.ˈni.du/.

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 20510, this pair ranks #49,992 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of uni vs unido

Shared letters: inu. Private to "uni": -. Private to "unido": do.

"uni" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "unido" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unido ← nuido · uindo · undio · uniddo · uniod · unnido

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "uni" for "unido" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "uni" is a verb and "unido" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "uni" or "unido"?
"unido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,296 in our Portuguese list, against #18,214 for "uni". 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 "uni" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "unido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,992 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "uni" and "unido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs uni". 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 #49,992 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