backvsbarConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,042
“back” frequency rank
#2,081
“bar” frequency rank
6123
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature back bar
Definition cigarro de maconha; beque dependência de hotel, de restaurante, de estabelecimento onde se vendem bebidas normalmente com um balcão; sala ou botequim com tal balcão

Letter map: back vs bar

Shared letters muted; letters that set back and bar apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
back
3 ch
bar

Pair insight - back / bar

back and bar are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

back is recorded at frequency rank #4,042, classified as anoun. bar is at rank #2,081, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaɾ/.

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 6123, this pair ranks #68,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of back vs bar

Shared letters: ab. Private to "back": ck. Private to "bar": r.

"back" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bar" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • backabck · bacck · backk · bakc · bback · bcak

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "back" for "bar" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "back" vs "bar" - which ranks higher?
"bar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,081 in our Portuguese list, against #4,042 for "back". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "back" vs "bar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "back" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,372 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "back" and "bar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "back vs baús". 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 #68,372 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