abalovsamploWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: abalo is a noun, amplo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“abalo” is a noun and “amplo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,870
“abalo” frequency rank
#4,284
“amplo” frequency rank
30154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abalo amplo
Definition ato ou efeito de abalar extenso, dilatado, espaçoso

Letter map: abalo vs amplo

Shared letters muted; letters that set abalo and amplo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. abalo (VCVCV) and amplo (VCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
abalo
5 ch
amplo

Part-of-speech tell for abalo / amplo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: abalo is anoun and amploanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abalo is recorded at frequency rank #25,870, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈba.lu/. amplo is at rank #4,284, tagged as anadj.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 30154, this pair ranks #38,284 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abalo vs amplo

Shared letters: alo. Private to "abalo": b. Private to "amplo": mp.

"abalo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "amplo" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abalo ← aablo · aballo · abaol · abbalo · ablao · baalo
  • amplo ← amlpo · ammplo · ampllo · ampol · ampplo · apmlo · maplo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abalo" for "amplo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abalo" is a noun and "amplo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "abalo" vs "amplo" - which ranks higher?
"amplo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,284 in our Portuguese list, against #25,870 for "abalo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "abalo" and "amplo". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abalo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "amplo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,284 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abalo" and "amplo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abalo vs alado". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #38,284 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list