baldevsbondeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,431
“balde” frequency rank
#15,269
“bonde” frequency rank
23700
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balde bonde
Definition vasilha de forma quase cilíndrica para o transporte de água e outros usos domésticos feita em madeira, metal ou plástico título da dívida pública pagável ao portador

Where the eye mixes balde and bonde

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

5 ch
balde
5 ch
bonde

Visual trap between balde and bonde

A purely visual mix-up. balde (/ˈbaɫ.dɨ/) and bonde (/ˈbõⁿ.ʤɪ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23700, 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/. bonde is at rank #15,269, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbõⁿ.ʤɪ/.

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 23700, this pair ranks #46,084 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of balde vs bonde

Shared letters: bde. Private to "balde": al. Private to "bonde": no.

"balde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bonde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • baldeablde · badle · baldde · baled · ballde · bbalde
  • bondebbonde · bnode · bodne · bondde · boned · bonnde · obnde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "balde" and "bonde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbaɫ.dɨ/ versus /ˈbõⁿ.ʤɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "balde" or "bonde"?
"balde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,431 in our Portuguese list, against #15,269 for "bonde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "balde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bonde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,084 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "balde" and "bonde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "boda vs bonde". 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 #46,084 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