Which to use
“balcão” is a noun and “bilião” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,011
- “balcão” frequency rank
- #44,716
- “bilião” frequency rank
- 55727
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balcão | bilião |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mostrador de estabelecimento comercial | milhão de milhões (10¹² = 1.000.000.000.000) |
Where the eye mixes balcão and bilião
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. balcão (CVCCVV) and bilião (CVCVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses balcão with bilião
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: balcão is /baɫ.ˈkɐ̃w̃/ while bilião is /bi.ˈljɐ̃w̃/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balcão is recorded at frequency rank #11,011, classified as anoun, pronounced /baɫ.ˈkɐ̃w̃/. 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 55727, this pair ranks #10,424 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of balcão vs bilião
Shared letters: bloã. Private to "balcão": ac. Private to "bilião": i.
"balcão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "bilião" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balcão" for "bilião" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "balcão" or "bilião" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "balcão" and "bilião" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "balcão" 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 #10,424 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balcão" and "bilião" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bilião vs biliar". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #10,424 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.