abusovsavulsoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,607
“abuso” frequency rank
#47,747
“avulso” frequency rank
52354
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abuso avulso
Definition comportamento inadequado e excessivo que não faz parte de um conjunto

Where the eye mixes abuso and avulso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
abuso
6 ch
avulso

Visual trap between abuso and avulso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abuso is /ɐ.ˈbu.zu/ while avulso is /ɐ.ˈvuɫ.su/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52354, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abuso is recorded at frequency rank #4,607, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈbu.zu/. avulso is at rank #47,747, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.ˈvuɫ.su/.

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 52354, this pair ranks #12,815 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of abuso vs avulso

Shared letters: aosu. Private to "abuso": b. Private to "avulso": lv.

"abuso" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "avulso" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abusoabbuso · absuo · abuos · abusso · aubso · bauso
  • avulsoauvlso · avluso · avullso · avulos · avulsso · avuslo · avvulso · vaulso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abuso" for "avulso" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abuso" is a noun and "avulso" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "abuso" or "avulso"?
"abuso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,607 in our Portuguese list, against #47,747 for "avulso". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "abuso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avulso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,815 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abuso" and "avulso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "also vs avulso". 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 #12,815 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