abalovsApoloWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“abalo” and “Apolo” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,870
“abalo” frequency rank
#16,672
“Apolo” frequency rank
42542
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abalo Apolo
Definition ato ou efeito de abalar prenome masculino

Where the eye mixes abalo and Apolo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. abalo and Apolo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
abalo
5 ch
Apolo

Look-alike desk: abalo vs Apolo

A purely visual mix-up. abalo (/ɐ.ˈba.lu/) and Apolo (/a.ˈpɔ.lu/.) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42542, 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/. Apolo is at rank #16,672, tagged as anoun, pronounced /a.ˈpɔ.lu/..

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 42542, this pair ranks #23,224 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abalo vs Apolo

Shared letters: alo. Private to "abalo": b. Private to "Apolo": p.

"abalo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "Apolo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abaloaablo · aballo · abaol · abbalo · ablao · baalo
  • Apoloaoplo · aploo · apool · appolo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abalo" and "Apolo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈba.lu/ versus /a.ˈpɔ.lu/.) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "abalo" or "Apolo"?
"Apolo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,672 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "abalo" and "Apolo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abalo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Apolo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,224 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abalo" and "Apolo" 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 #23,224 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