unitvsútilConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#24,488
“unit” frequency rank
#2,549
“útil” frequency rank
27037
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature unit útil
Definition unidade em seus vários sentidos: que pode ter ou tem algum uso ou é necessário:

Letter map: unit vs útil

Shared letters muted; letters that set unit and útil apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

4 ch
unit
4 ch
útil

Part-of-speech tell for unit / útil

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: unit is anoun and útilanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

unit is recorded at frequency rank #24,488, classified as anoun. útil is at rank #2,549, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈu.tʃiw].

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 27037, this pair ranks #41,993 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of unit vs útil

Shared letters: it. Private to "unit": nu. Private to "útil": .

"unit" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "útil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unitnuit · uint · unitt · unnit · unti

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "unit" and "útil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "unit" is a noun and "útil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "unit" or "útil" show up more?
"útil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,549 in our Portuguese list, against #24,488 for "unit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "unit" vs "útil" 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 "útil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,993 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "unit" and "útil" 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 #41,993 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