zé
The verdict
“zé” is a regularly-used Portuguese word, ranked #3,176 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,176
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 2
- letters
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - indivíduo comum, do povo
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 | zé |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #3,176 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “zé” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for zé is 2 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #3,176 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for zé in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "zu", "zen", "zum", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct Portuguese form is zé, spelled Z-É.
Definition
- 1indivíduo comum, do povo
- 2indivíduo sem importância, que não tem peso social e é destituído de qualquer poder econômico; joão-ninguém
- 3(Derivação: por sinédoque) o conjunto dos pobres, dos indivíduos pertencentes à camada inferior de uma sociedade; plebe, ralé
- 4indivíduo pouco inteligente, ignorante, tolo, de pouco valor; pateta, pacóvio, toleirão
- 5o órgão genital masculino; pênis
Synonyms
Antonyms
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 “zé”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is Z-É - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “zu” - see the side-by-side comparison. zé vs zu
- 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.