oi
The verdict
“oi” is in the everyday core of Portuguese, ranked #631 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #631
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - expressa cumprimento que se faz ao encontrar uma pessoa
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | oi |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #631 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “oi” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for oi is 2 letters long, classified as an interjection. Corpus data places it at rank #631 in overall Portuguese word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
oi has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Portuguese patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "os", "ou", "on", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Portuguese form is oi, spelled O-I.
Definition
- 1expressa cumprimento que se faz ao encontrar uma pessoa
- 2expressa resposta que se dá quando se é chamado indicando que se está presente a prestar atenção
- 3expressa chamamento à atenção de alguém em específico
- 4expressa chamamento à atenção em situações em que não se sabe da presença ou não de alguém no recinto ou local
- 5expressa estado de pasmo ante uma implausibilidade enorme ocorrida ou algo confusamente difícil de crer como factualidade
- 6expressa incompreensão a algo dito e demonstra que se quer que seja repetido ou feito se entender o que se pretendia comunicar
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 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “oi”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is O-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “os” - see the side-by-side comparison. oi vs os
- 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.