Which to use
“portion” and “porto” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,101
- “portion” frequency rank
- #6,226
- “porto” frequency rank
- 13327
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portion | porto |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie d’un tout divisé, ou considéré comme tel. | Vin muté portugais, produit dans la région du Haut Douro. |
Where the eye mixes portion and porto
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses portion with porto
A purely visual mix-up. portion (\pɔʁ.sjɔ̃\) and porto (\pɔʁ.to\) 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 13327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portion is recorded at frequency rank #7,101, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.sjɔ̃\. porto is at rank #6,226, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.to\.
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 13327, this pair ranks #401,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of portion vs porto
Shared letters: oprt. Private to "portion": in. Private to "porto": -.
"portion" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "porto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portion" for "porto" ever safe?
Frequency check: "portion" vs "porto" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "portion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "porto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portion" and "porto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "portillon vs portion". 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 #401,467 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.