valavsvidaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,196
“vala” frequency rank
#85
“vida” frequency rank
16281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vala vida
Definition escavação em um terreno, de forma alongada e mais ou menos profunda, feita para variados fins, mais frequentemente para condução de águas, drenagem, ou instalação de encanamentos, esgotos etc propriedade que caracteriza os organismos cuja existência evolui do nascimento até a morte

Where the eye mixes vala and vida

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

4 ch
vala
4 ch
vida

Look-alike desk: vala vs vida

A purely visual mix-up. vala (/ˈva.lɐ/) and vida (/ˈvi.ta/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vala is recorded at frequency rank #16,196, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈva.lɐ/. vida is at rank #85, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvi.ta/.

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 16281, this pair ranks #55,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vala vs vida

Shared letters: av. Private to "vala": l. Private to "vida": di.

"vala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vida" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • valaavla · vaal · valla · vlaa · vvala
  • vidaivda · vdia · viad · vidda · vvida

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vala" and "vida" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈva.lɐ/ versus /ˈvi.ta/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vala" or "vida" show up more?
"vida" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #85 in our Portuguese list, against #16,196 for "vala". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "vala" and "vida" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vala" and "vida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vala vs velar". 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 #55,287 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