vigênciavsviolênciaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,943
“vigência” frequency rank
#1,414
“violência” frequency rank
19357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vigência violência
Definition período de validade força intensa e repentina

Where the eye mixes vigência and violência

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. vigência runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against violência's 9 (CVVCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
vigência
9 ch
violência

Look-alike desk: vigência vs violência

A purely visual mix-up. vigência (/vi.ˈʒẽ.sjɐ/) and violência (/vju.ˈlẽ.sjɐ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vigência is recorded at frequency rank #17,943, classified as anoun, pronounced /vi.ˈʒẽ.sjɐ/. violência is at rank #1,414, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vju.ˈlẽ.sjɐ/.

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 19357, this pair ranks #51,381 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vigência vs violência

Shared letters: acinvê. Private to "vigência": g. Private to "violência": lo.

"vigência" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "violência" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vigência" for "violência" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/vi.ˈʒẽ.sjɐ/ versus /vju.ˈlẽ.sjɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vigência" vs "violência" - which ranks higher?
"violência" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,414 in our Portuguese list, against #17,943 for "vigência". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vigência" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "violência" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,381 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vigência" and "violência" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigência vs vivenciar". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #51,381 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