alô

adv

The verdict

“alô” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,874) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,874
frequency rank, Portuguese
4,352
“A” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - lá, alá, podendo indicar um lugar, um tempo, mais afastado que lá

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

alô vs As
0% similar
alô vs ao
33% similar
alô vs ar
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for alô
PropertyValue
Headwordalô
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechAdverb
Letters3
Frequency rank#4,874
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “alô” sits in Portuguese frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). alô lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for alô is neighbouring look-alikes ("As", "ao", …), not just typos; it is anadverb. Frequency #4,874 among 4,352 “A” headwords. Gloss: "lá, alá, podendo indicar um lugar, um tempo, mais afastado que lá".

No misspelling variants are generated for alô in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "As", "ao", "ar", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct Portuguese form is alô, spelled A-L-Ô.

Definition

  1. 1
    lá, alá, podendo indicar um lugar, um tempo, mais afastado que lá

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 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "alô"?
"alô" is spelled A-L-Ô.
What does "alô" mean?
As an adverb, "alô" means: lá, alá, podendo indicar um lugar, um tempo, mais afastado que lá
What words are commonly confused with "alô"?
"alô" is commonly confused with "As", "ao", "ar". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "alô" come from?
"alô" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “alô”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct Portuguese spelling is A-L-Ô - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Don't mix it up with “As” - see the side-by-side comparison. alô vs As
  • Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words

Words at a similar Portuguese frequency

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list