fado
/ˈfɑːdoʊ/
"fado" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fado” is uncommon English (frequency #93,681 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #93,681
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Portuguese folk song, usually featuring a single vocalist, Portuguese guitar and sometimes classical guitar. Lyrical themes are often melancholic in nature; the structure of the song is of greate...
Corpus desk
Index EN-fado · fado · English
fado · rank #93,681 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #93,681
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH exuberantly
Nearest frequency peer: exuberantly (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “fado”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- excreta
excreta
6,323 corpus weight
- extemporane…
extemporaneous
6,322 corpus weight
- exuberantly
exuberantly
6,321 corpus weight
- fado
fado
6,320 corpus weight
- Faneuil
Faneuil
6,319 corpus weight
- Fano
Fano
6,318 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “fado” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fado |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɑːdoʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #93,681 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “fado” in English
Rare enough to double-check
fado is uncommon English at frequency #93,681 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfɑːdoʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A Portuguese folk song, usually featuring a single vocalist, Portuguese guitar and sometimes classical guitar. Lyrical themes are often melancholic in nature; the structure of the song is of greate...".
No generated misspelling entries exist for fado in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Portuguese fado (“fate”), from Latin fātum. Doublet of fate. The correct English form is fado, spelled F-A-D-O.
Definition
- 1A Portuguese folk song, usually featuring a single vocalist, Portuguese guitar and sometimes classical guitar. Lyrical themes are often melancholic in nature; the structure of the song is of greater importance.
Etymology
From Portuguese fado (“fate”), from Latin fātum. Doublet of fate.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fado", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).