Which to use
“amigo” is an adjective and “asilo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #384
- “amigo” frequency rank
- #9,000
- “asilo” frequency rank
- 9384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | amigo | asilo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | que tem ligação com outrem por amizade | local onde escondiam-se criminosos |
Where the eye mixes amigo and asilo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. amigo and asilo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between amigo and asilo
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: amigo is /aˈmi.ɡu/ while asilo is /a.ˈzi.lu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
amigo is recorded at frequency rank #384, classified as anadj, pronounced /aˈmi.ɡu/. asilo is at rank #9,000, tagged as anoun, pronounced /a.ˈzi.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 9384, this pair ranks #64,069 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of amigo vs asilo
Shared letters: aio. Private to "amigo": gm. Private to "asilo": ls.
"amigo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "asilo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "amigo" and "asilo" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "amigo" or "asilo" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "amigo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "asilo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,069 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "amigo" and "asilo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aipo vs asilo". 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 #64,069 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.