babevsbaileTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,452
“babe” frequency rank
#3,664
“baile” frequency rank
20116
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature babe baile
Definition o mesmo que baby (bebê) reunião de pessoas para dançar

Where the eye mixes babe and baile

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

4 ch
babe
5 ch
baile

Look-alike desk: babe vs baile

A purely visual mix-up. babe ([beɪb]) and baile (/ˈbaj.lɨ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

babe is recorded at frequency rank #16,452, classified as anoun, pronounced [beɪb]. baile is at rank #3,664, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaj.lɨ/.

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 20116, this pair ranks #50,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of babe vs baile

Shared letters: abe. Private to "babe": -. Private to "baile": il.

"babe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "baile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • babeabbe · babbe · baeb · bbabe · bbae
  • baileabile · baiel · baille · balie · bbaile · biale

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "babe" for "baile" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([beɪb] versus /ˈbaj.lɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "babe" or "baile"?
"baile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,664 in our Portuguese list, against #16,452 for "babe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "babe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "baile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "babe" and "baile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "babe vs bile". 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 #50,482 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