balãovsbarroWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,601
“balão” frequency rank
#9,961
“barro” frequency rank
17562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balão barro
Definition recipiente de forma oval que, cheio de um fluido mais leve que o ar, flutua sem auxílio de um sistema de propulsão a matéria-prima para a cerâmica e a olaria

Letter map: balão vs barro

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

5 ch
balão
5 ch
barro

Pair insight - balão / barro

balão and barro 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 17562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

balão is recorded at frequency rank #7,601, classified as anoun. barro is at rank #9,961, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈba.Ru/.

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 17562, this pair ranks #53,658 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of balão vs barro

Shared letters: abo. Private to "balão": . Private to "barro": r.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barroabrro · baro · baror · bbarro · braro

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "balão" and "barro" 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.
Frequency check: "balão" vs "barro" - which ranks higher?
"balão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,601 in our Portuguese list, against #9,961 for "barro". 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 "barro". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "balão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "barro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,658 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "balão" and "barro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barro vs brio". 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 #53,658 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