apitovsasiloTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,770
“apito” frequency rank
#9,000
“asilo” frequency rank
23770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apito asilo
Definition instrumento feito em madeira, metal, plástico ou outro material que produz som ao ser assoprado, e usado com diversos fins como alarme, instrumento musical, sinalização, caça, etc. local onde escondiam-se criminosos

Where the eye mixes apito and asilo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
apito
5 ch
asilo

Visual trap between apito and asilo

A purely visual mix-up. apito (/aˈpi.tu/) and asilo (/a.ˈzi.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 23770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apito is recorded at frequency rank #14,770, classified as anoun, pronounced /aˈpi.tu/. 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 23770, this pair ranks #45,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of apito vs asilo

Shared letters: aio. Private to "apito": pt. Private to "asilo": ls.

"apito" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "asilo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apitoaipto · apiot · apitto · appito · aptio · paito
  • asiloaislo · asillo · asiol · aslio · assilo · sailo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "apito" for "asilo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/aˈpi.tu/ versus /a.ˈzi.lu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "apito" or "asilo"?
"asilo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,000 in our Portuguese list, against #14,770 for "apito". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "apito" 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 #45,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apito" and "asilo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apito vs apo". 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 #45,984 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