BallvsbuleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,855
“Ball” frequency rank
#33,307
“bule” frequency rank
42162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ball bule
Definition bola recipiente bojudo para preparar e servir chá

Where the eye mixes Ball and bule

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Ball
4 ch
bule

Look-alike desk: Ball vs bule

A purely visual mix-up. Ball (/bal/) and bule (/ˈbu.le/) 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 42162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ball is recorded at frequency rank #8,855, classified as anoun, pronounced /bal/. bule is at rank #33,307, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbu.le/.

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 42162, this pair ranks #23,651 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ball vs bule

Shared letters: bl. Private to "Ball": a. Private to "bule": eu.

"Ball" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "bule" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ballabll · bball · blal
  • bulebbule · buel · bulle · uble

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ball" and "bule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/bal/ versus /ˈbu.le/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Ball" or "bule" show up more?
"Ball" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,855 in our Portuguese list, against #33,307 for "bule". 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 "Ball" and "bule" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ball" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,651 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ball" and "bule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs bule". 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 #23,651 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