balãovsbaldeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,601
“balão” frequency rank
#8,431
“balde” frequency rank
16032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balão balde
Definition recipiente de forma oval que, cheio de um fluido mais leve que o ar, flutua sem auxílio de um sistema de propulsão vasilha de forma quase cilíndrica para o transporte de água e outros usos domésticos feita em madeira, metal ou plástico

Letter map: balão vs balde

Shared letters muted; letters that set balão and balde apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
balão
5 ch
balde

Corpus notes: balão and balde

balão and balde 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

balão is recorded at frequency rank #7,601, classified as anoun. balde is at rank #8,431, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaɫ.dɨ/.

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 16032, this pair ranks #55,619 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of balão vs balde

Shared letters: abl. Private to "balão": . Private to "balde": de.

"balão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "balde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baldeablde · badle · baldde · baled · ballde · bbalde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "balão" and "balde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "balão" or "balde"?
"balão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,601 in our Portuguese list, against #8,431 for "balde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "balão" and "balde". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "balão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "balde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,619 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "balão" and "balde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "balde 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 #55,619 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