Which to use
“baião” and “bico” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,438
- “baião” frequency rank
- #5,914
- “bico” frequency rank
- 36352
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | baião | bico |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | tabua-larga (Typha latifolia) | extremidade de entrada do sistema digestivo de uma ave |
Where the eye mixes baião and bico
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. baião runs 5 letters (CVVVV) against bico's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: baião vs bico
A purely visual mix-up. baião (/baj.'oŋ/) and bico (/ˈbi.ku/) 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 36352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
baião is recorded at frequency rank #30,438, classified as anoun, pronounced /baj.'oŋ/. bico is at rank #5,914, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbi.ku/.
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 36352, this pair ranks #30,494 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of baião vs bico
Shared letters: bio. Private to "baião": aã. Private to "bico": c.
"baião" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV · "bico" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- bico ← bbico · bcio · bicco · bioc · ibco
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "baião" for "bico" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "baião" or "bico" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "baião" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,494 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "baião" and "bico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baião vs bailar". 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 #30,494 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.