unitvsunsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: unit is a noun, uns is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“unit” is a noun and “uns” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,488
“unit” frequency rank
#485
“uns” frequency rank
24973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature unit uns
Definition unidade em seus vários sentidos: alguns; certas pessoas

Letter map: unit vs uns

Shared letters muted; letters that set unit and uns apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
unit
3 ch
uns

Grammar separator: unit vs uns

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: unit is anoun and unsanarticle. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

unit is recorded at frequency rank #24,488, classified as anoun. uns is at rank #485, tagged as anarticle.

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 24973, this pair ranks #44,459 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of unit vs uns

Shared letters: nu. Private to "unit": it. Private to "uns": s.

"unit" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "uns" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unitnuit · uint · unitt · unnit · unti

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "unit" and "uns" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "unit" is a noun and "uns" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "unit" vs "uns" - which ranks higher?
"uns" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #485 in our Portuguese list, against #24,488 for "unit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "unit" vs "uns" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "unit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "uns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,459 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "unit" and "uns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "unit vs ut". 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 #44,459 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