bailavsbaixoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: baila is a noun, baixo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“baila” is a noun and “baixo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,025
“baila” frequency rank
#625
“baixo” frequency rank
35650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baila baixo
Definition baile de pouca estatura:

Where the eye mixes baila and baixo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. baila and baixo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
baila
5 ch
baixo

Why the eye confuses baila with baixo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: baila is /ˈbaj.lɐ/ while baixo is /'bai̯.ʃu/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35650, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baila is recorded at frequency rank #35,025, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaj.lɐ/. baixo is at rank #625, tagged as anadj, pronounced /'bai̯.ʃu/.

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 35650, this pair ranks #31,369 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of baila vs baixo

Shared letters: abi. Private to "baila": l. Private to "baixo": ox.

"baila" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "baixo" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baila ← abila · baial · bailla · balia · bbaila · biala
  • baixo ← abixo · baiox · baixxo · baxio · bbaixo · biaxo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "baila" and "baixo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "baila" is a noun and "baixo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "baila" or "baixo"?
"baixo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #625 in our Portuguese list, against #35,025 for "baila". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "baila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "baixo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,369 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baila" and "baixo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baila 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 #31,369 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