baldevsbodeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,431
“balde” frequency rank
#13,898
“bode” frequency rank
22329
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balde bode
Definition vasilha de forma quase cilíndrica para o transporte de água e outros usos domésticos feita em madeira, metal ou plástico o macho da cabra (Capra aegagrus hircus).

Where the eye mixes balde and bode

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

5 ch
balde
4 ch
bode

Why the eye confuses balde with bode

A purely visual mix-up. balde (/ˈbaɫ.dɨ/) and bode (/ˈbɔ.dɨ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22329, 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/. bode is at rank #13,898, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɔ.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 22329, this pair ranks #47,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of balde vs bode

Shared letters: bde. Private to "balde": al. Private to "bode": o.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baldeablde · badle · baldde · baled · ballde · bbalde
  • bodebbode · bdoe · bodde · boed · obde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "balde" for "bode" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbaɫ.dɨ/ versus /ˈbɔ.dɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "balde" or "bode" show up more?
"balde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,431 in our Portuguese list, against #13,898 for "bode". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "balde" and "bode" 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 "bode" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,743 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "balde" and "bode" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs bode". 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 #47,743 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