Which to use
“baile” and “ballet” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,664
- “baile” frequency rank
- #13,226
- “ballet” frequency rank
- 16890
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | baile | ballet |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | reunião de pessoas para dançar | balé |
Where the eye mixes baile and ballet
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. baile runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against ballet's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: baile vs ballet
A purely visual mix-up. baile (/ˈbaj.lɨ/) and ballet (/balɛt/.) 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 16890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
baile is recorded at frequency rank #3,664, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaj.lɨ/. ballet is at rank #13,226, tagged as anoun, pronounced /balɛt/..
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 16890, this pair ranks #54,532 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of baile vs ballet
Shared letters: abel. Private to "baile": i. Private to "ballet": t.
"baile" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "ballet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "baile" for "ballet" ever safe?
Which is more common, "baile" or "ballet"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "baile" and "ballet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "baile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ballet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,532 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "baile" and "ballet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baile 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 #54,532 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.