Which to use
“ban” is a noun and “bom” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,668
- “ban” frequency rank
- #96
- “bom” frequency rank
- 13764
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ban | bom |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | proibição | que corresponde plenamente ao que é exigido, desejado ou esperado quanto à sua natureza, adequação, função, eficácia, funcionamento etc. (falando de ser ou coisa) |
Letter map: ban vs bom
Shared letters muted; letters that set ban and bom apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for ban / bom
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ban is anoun and bomanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ban is recorded at frequency rank #13,668, classified as anoun. bom is at rank #96, tagged as anadj.
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 13764, this pair ranks #58,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ban vs bom
Shared letters: b. Private to "ban": an. Private to "bom": mo.
"ban" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "bom" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ban" and "bom" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ban" or "bom" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "ban" vs "bom" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "ban" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #58,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ban" and "bom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ban vs bué". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #58,476 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.