vilavsviolãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,184
“vila” frequency rank
#5,369
“violão” frequency rank
6553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vila violão
Definition povoação de tamanho intermédio entre aldeia e cidade guitarra acústica com cordas de nylon, concebida inicialmente para a interpretação de peças de música clássica cujo corpo é oco e feito de várias madeiras diferentes

Where the eye mixes vila and violão

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

4 ch
vila
6 ch
violão

Why the eye confuses vila with violão

A purely visual mix-up. vila (/ˈvi.lɐ/) and violão ([vio'lãw]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vila is recorded at frequency rank #1,184, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈvi.lɐ/. violão is at rank #5,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vio'lãw].

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 6553, this pair ranks #67,856 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vila vs violão

Shared letters: ilv. Private to "vila": a. Private to "violão": .

"vila" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "violão" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vilaivla · vial · villa · vlia · vvila

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vila" for "violão" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈvi.lɐ/ versus [vio'lãw]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vila" vs "violão" - which ranks higher?
"vila" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,184 in our Portuguese list, against #5,369 for "violão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "violão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,856 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vila" and "violão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "velar vs vila". 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 #67,856 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