varavsvarelaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,130
“vara” frequency rank
#17,406
“varela” frequency rank
23536
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vara varela
Definition haste fina e flexível homem casado que, em relação à mulher, é o meio termo entre varão e varunca

Letter map: vara vs varela

Shared letters muted; letters that set vara and varela apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. vara runs 4 letters (CVCV) against varela's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vara
6 ch
varela

Corpus notes: vara and varela

vara and varela are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23536, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vara is recorded at frequency rank #6,130, classified as anoun. varela is at rank #17,406, tagged as anoun.

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 23536, this pair ranks #46,278 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vara vs varela

Shared letters: arv. Private to "vara": -. Private to "varela": el.

"vara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "varela" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vara ← avra · vaar · varra · vraa · vvara
  • varela ← avrela · vaerla · vareal · varella · varlea · varrela · vraela · vvarela

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vara" for "varela" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vara" or "varela" show up more?
"vara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,130 in our Portuguese list, against #17,406 for "varela". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "vara" and "varela".

  • Full dictionary entry for "vara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "varela" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,278 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vara" and "varela" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "varela vs vareta". 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 #46,278 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