uni vs uno, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#18,214
“uni” frequency rank: #11,761
“uno” frequency rank: 29975
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	uni	uno
Definition	primeira pessoa do singular do pretérito perfeito do indicativo do verbo unir	único

Where the eye mixes uni and uno

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

uni

3 ch

uno

Visual trap between uni and uno

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: uni is /ʊ.ˈni/ while uno is /ˈunu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “uni” becomes o in “uno”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29975, 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/. uno is at rank #11,761, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈunu/.

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 29975, this pair ranks #38,509 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of uni vs uno

Shared letters: nu. Private to "uni": i. Private to "uno": o.

"uni" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "uno" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "uni" and "uno" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "uni" is a verb and "uno" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "uni" vs "uno" - which ranks higher?

"uno" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,761 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "uni" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "uno" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #38,509 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"uni" and "uno" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ú vs uni". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #38,509 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.