alô
Portuguese, noun
alô is spelled A-L-Ô (3 letters) and appears 17 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 4,891st most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Alô is a Portuguese masculine noun meaning “hello (instance of using the greeting alô when answering the telephone)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). Without its accent, alo is a different word: “first-person singular present indicative of alar”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “cumprimento de saudação”.
What does alô mean in English?
interjection
- 1
hello (greeting used when answering the telephone or when calling someone)
- 2
hello? (used to confirm that the person being addressed is listening)
Alô? Tá me ouvindo? (informal, Brazil)
noun
- 1
masculinehello (instance of using the greeting alô when answering the telephone)
- 2
masculinethe act of greeting informally
prefix
- 1
allo- (different)
- 2
allo- (isomeric)
verb
- 1
first-person singular present indicative of alar
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
adverb: 1. para aquele lugar 2. àquele lugar 3. naquele lugar 4. para barlavento
adverb: 1. lá, alá, podendo indicar um lugar, um tempo, mais afastado que lá
interjection: 1. expressa alerta, chamada à atenção de alguém 2. expressa saudação 3. expressa saudação e contatabilidade ao telefone
noun: 1. cumprimento de saudação 2. chamada de atenção, lembrete, aviso sobre alguma coisa
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of alô
- alôs plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to alô
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is alô in Portuguese?
alô appears 17 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).