el

article

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“el” is a regularly-used Portuguese word, ranked #1,143 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an article.

#1,143
frequency rank, Portuguese
2
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - o, artigo definido masculino:

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

el vs em
50% similar
el vs eu
50% similar
el vs en
50% similar

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

Key facts for el
PropertyValue
Headwordel
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechArticle
Letters2
Frequency rank#1,143
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “el” 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). el lands here:

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

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Portuguese entry for el is 2 letters long, classified as an article. Corpus data places it at rank #1,143 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "o, artigo definido masculino:".

No generated misspelling entries exist for el in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "em", "eu", "en", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Portuguese form is el, spelled E-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    o, artigo definido masculino:

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 "el"?
"el" is spelled E-L.
What does "el" mean?
As an article, "el" means: o, artigo definido masculino:
What words are commonly confused with "el"?
"el" is commonly confused with "em", "eu", "en". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "el" come from?
"el" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 “el”

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

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