ácidovsaladoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,441
“ácido” frequency rank
#47,708
“alado” frequency rank
52149
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ácido alado
Definition que possui um sabor azedo, picante, acre, como o do vinagre que tem asas

Where the eye mixes ácido and alado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ácido and alado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
ácido
5 ch
alado

Why the eye confuses ácido with alado

A purely visual mix-up. ácido (/ˈa.si.du/) and alado (/a.ˈla.du/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ácido is recorded at frequency rank #4,441, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈa.si.du/. alado is at rank #47,708, tagged as anadj, pronounced /a.ˈla.du/.

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 52149, this pair ranks #12,990 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ácido vs alado

Shared letters: do. Private to "ácido": ciá. Private to "alado": al.

"ácido" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "alado" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alado ← aaldo · aladdo · alaod · aldao · allado · laado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ácido" and "alado" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈa.si.du/ versus /a.ˈla.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ácido" or "alado" show up more?
"ácido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,441 in our Portuguese list, against #47,708 for "alado". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ácido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,990 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ácido" and "alado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alado vs álamo". 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 #12,990 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