vidavsvivaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#85
“vida” frequency rank
#1,516
“viva” frequency rank
1601
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vida viva
Definition propriedade que caracteriza os organismos cuja existência evolui do nascimento até a morte exclamação de aplauso ou de felicitação

Where the eye mixes vida and viva

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
vida
4 ch
viva

Visual trap between vida and viva

A purely visual mix-up. vida (/ˈvi.ta/) and viva (/ˈvi.vɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - d in “vida” becomes v in “viva”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1601, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vida is recorded at frequency rank #85, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈvi.ta/. viva is at rank #1,516, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvi.vɐ/.

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 1601, this pair ranks #73,937 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vida vs viva

Shared letters: aiv. Private to "vida": d. Private to "viva": -.

"vida" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "viva" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vidaivda · vdia · viad · vidda · vvida
  • vivaivva · viav · vivva · vvia · vviva

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vida" and "viva" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈvi.ta/ versus /ˈvi.vɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vida" or "viva" show up more?
"vida" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #85 in our Portuguese list, against #1,516 for "viva". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vida" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "viva" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,937 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vida" and "viva" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "viva 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 #73,937 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