violence vs violência, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#33,227
“violence” frequency rank: #1,414
“violência” frequency rank: 34641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	violence	violência
Definition	violência	força intensa e repentina

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set violence and violência apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

violence

9 ch

violência

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. violence (/vjɔ.lɑ̃s/, X-SAMPA: /vjOlA~s/) 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 34641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

violence is recorded at frequency rank #33,227, classified as anoun, pronounced /vjɔ.lɑ̃s/, X-SAMPA: /vjOlA~s/. 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 34641, this pair ranks #32,566 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of violence vs violência

Shared letters: cilnov. Private to "violence": e. Private to "violência": aê.

"violence" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV · "violência" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

violence ← ivolence · viloence · vioelnce · violecne · violencce · violenec · violennce · viollence

Frequency comparison

violence#33,227

violência#1,414

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "violence" and "violência" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/vjɔ.lɑ̃s/, X-SAMPA: /vjOlA~s/ versus /vju.ˈlẽ.sjɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "violence" or "violência"?

"violência" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,414 in our Portuguese list, against #33,227 for "violence". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering violence vs violência

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “violence” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable