baldevsbaliConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#8,431
“balde” frequency rank
#18,255
“bali” frequency rank
26686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balde bali
Definition vasilha de forma quase cilíndrica para o transporte de água e outros usos domésticos feita em madeira, metal ou plástico que diz respeito à língua bali

Where the eye mixes balde and bali

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
balde
4 ch
bali

Look-alike desk: balde vs bali

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: balde is /ˈbaɫ.dɨ/ while bali is /ˈba.li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

balde is recorded at frequency rank #8,431, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaɫ.dɨ/. bali is at rank #18,255, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈba.li/.

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 26686, this pair ranks #42,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of balde vs bali

Shared letters: abl. Private to "balde": de. Private to "bali": i.

"balde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bali" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baldeablde · badle · baldde · baled · ballde · bbalde
  • baliabli · bail · balli · bbali · blai

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "balde" and "bali" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "balde" is a noun and "bali" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "balde" or "bali" show up more?
"balde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,431 in our Portuguese list, against #18,255 for "bali". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "balde" and "bali" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "balde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bali" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,416 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "balde" and "bali" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bali 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 #42,416 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