zu
/t͡suː/
The verdict
“zu” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #39,935 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #39,935
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 2
- letters
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - fechado
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 | zu |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /t͡suː/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #39,935 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “zu” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for zu is 2 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /t͡suː/. Corpus data places it at rank #39,935 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "fechado".
Zero misspellings are on record for zu in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "zum", "zulu", "zé", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Portuguese form is zu, spelled Z-U.
Definition
- 1fechado
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 “zu”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is Z-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /t͡suː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “zum” - see the side-by-side comparison. zu vs zum
- 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.