balãovsbiliãoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,601
“balão” frequency rank
#44,716
“bilião” frequency rank
52317
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balão bilião
Definition recipiente de forma oval que, cheio de um fluido mais leve que o ar, flutua sem auxílio de um sistema de propulsão milhão de milhões (10¹² = 1.000.000.000.000)

Letter map: balão vs bilião

Shared letters muted; letters that set balão and bilião apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
balão
6 ch
bilião

Role in the sentence - balão and bilião

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: balão is anoun and biliãoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52317, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

balão is recorded at frequency rank #7,601, classified as anoun. bilião is at rank #44,716, tagged as anadj, pronounced /bi.ˈljɐ̃w̃/.

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 52317, this pair ranks #12,862 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of balão vs bilião

Shared letters: bloã. Private to "balão": a. Private to "bilião": i.

"balão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "bilião" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "balão" and "bilião" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "balão" is a noun and "bilião" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "balão" vs "bilião" - which ranks higher?
"balão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,601 in our Portuguese list, against #44,716 for "bilião". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "balão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bilião" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,862 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "balão" and "bilião" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bilião vs biliar". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #12,862 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