ons

/ons/

//ons// pron

The verdict

“ons” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #48,564) as a pronoun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#48,564
frequency rank, Portuguese
385
“O” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - pronome pessoal neutro do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural

Corpus desk

Index PT-ons · ons · Portuguese

ons · rank #48,564 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #48,564
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 385
  • PHOTO-FINISH ostracismo

Nearest frequency peer: ostracismo (+3 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “ons”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “ons” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

ons vs os
67% similar
ons vs ou
33% similar
ons vs or
33% similar

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

Key facts for ons
PropertyValue
Headwordons
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechPronoun
IPA/ons/
Letters3
Frequency rank#48,564
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “ons”

Esta escala corre do núcleo do português quotidiano (esquerda) até o rastro de formas raras (direita).onscai aqui:

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

A escala é logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× mais rara). Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “ostracismo” (#48,567), “ourives” (#48,569), “paganismo” (#48,572). Entre 385 lemas com “O”, “ons” fica em #48,564. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ons is neighbouring look-alikes ("os", "ou", …), not just typos; it is apronoun pronounced /ons/. Frequency #48,564 among 385 “O” headwords. Gloss: "pronome pessoal neutro do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural".

ons has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "os", "ou", "or", 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 to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct Portuguese form is ons, spelled O-N-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    pronome pessoal neutro do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural

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 "ons"?
"ons" is spelled O-N-S. The IPA pronunciation is /ons/.
What does "ons" mean?
As a pronoun, "ons" means: pronome pessoal neutro do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural
What words are commonly confused with "ons"?
"ons" is commonly confused with "os", "ou", "or". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ons"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ons" is /ons/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ons" come from?
"ons" is a Portuguese word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ons", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list