bailarvsbalãoConfusable pair

Quick tell: bailar is a verb, balão is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bailar” is a verb and “balão” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,314
“bailar” frequency rank
#7,601
“balão” frequency rank
56915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bailar balão
Definition executar dançando recipiente de forma oval que, cheio de um fluido mais leve que o ar, flutua sem auxílio de um sistema de propulsão

Letter map: bailar vs balão

Shared letters muted; letters that set bailar and balão apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. bailar runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against balão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
bailar
5 ch
balão

Grammar separator: bailar vs balão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bailar is averb and balãoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bailar is recorded at frequency rank #49,314, classified as averb, pronounced /baj.ˈlaɾ/. balão is at rank #7,601, tagged as anoun.

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 56915, this pair ranks #9,653 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bailar vs balão

Shared letters: abl. Private to "bailar": ir. Private to "balão": oã.

"bailar" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "balão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bailar ← abilar · baialr · bailarr · baillar · bailra · baliar · bbailar · bialar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bailar" and "balão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bailar" is a verb and "balão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bailar" or "balão" show up more?
"balão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,601 in our Portuguese list, against #49,314 for "bailar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bailar" and "balão".

  • Full dictionary entry for "bailar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "balão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,653 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bailar" and "balão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bailar vs bandar". 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 #9,653 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