vigavsvilãoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#32,021
“viga” frequency rank
#7,232
“vilão” frequency rank
39253
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature viga vilão
Definition peça de sustentação horizontal, utilizada em construções; pode ser de madeira, de concreto armado ou de aço relativo ou pertencente à vila

Letter map: viga vs vilão

Shared letters muted; letters that set viga and vilão apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. viga runs 4 letters (CVCV) against vilão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
viga
5 ch
vilão

Grammar separator: viga vs vilão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: viga is anoun and vilãoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

viga is recorded at frequency rank #32,021, classified as anoun. vilão is at rank #7,232, tagged as anadj, pronounced /bi.'laŋ/, /bi.'la.o/ ou /bi.'law/.

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 39253, this pair ranks #27,049 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of viga vs vilão

Shared letters: iv. Private to "viga": ag. Private to "vilão": loã.

"viga" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vilão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viga ← ivga · vgia · viag · vigga · vviga

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "viga" for "vilão" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "viga" is a noun and "vilão" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "viga" or "vilão"?
"vilão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,232 in our Portuguese list, against #32,021 for "viga". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "viga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vilão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,049 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "viga" and "vilão" 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 #27,049 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