vicevsvigaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,298
“vice” frequency rank
#32,021
“viga” frequency rank
33319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vice viga
Definition indica aquele que substitui o principal (por exemplo em vice-presidente, vice-reitor, etc) peça de sustentação horizontal, utilizada em construções; pode ser de madeira, de concreto armado ou de aço

Letter map: vice vs viga

Shared letters muted; letters that set vice and viga apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
vice
4 ch
viga

Pair insight - vice / viga

vice and viga 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vice is recorded at frequency rank #1,298, classified as anoun. viga is at rank #32,021, 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 33319, this pair ranks #34,223 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vice vs viga

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vice": ce. Private to "viga": ag.

"vice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "viga" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viceivce · vcie · vicce · viec · vvice
  • vigaivga · vgia · viag · vigga · vviga

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vice" for "viga" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "vice" or "viga"?
"vice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,298 in our Portuguese list, against #32,021 for "viga". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "vice" vs "viga" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "viga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,223 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vice" and "viga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "viga vs vivaz". 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 #34,223 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