bancovsblocoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#821
“banco” frequency rank
#2,307
“bloco” frequency rank
3128
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banco bloco
Definition móvel para sentar, sem encosto se for individual, em madeira, cortiça, plástico, vime ou ferro; mocho; escabelo: massa volumosa e compacta de uma substância pesada

Where the eye mixes banco and bloco

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

5 ch
banco
5 ch
bloco

Why the eye confuses banco with bloco

A purely visual mix-up. banco (/ˈbã.ku/) and bloco (/ˈblɔ.ku/) 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 3128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

banco is recorded at frequency rank #821, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbã.ku/. bloco is at rank #2,307, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈblɔ.ku/.

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 3128, this pair ranks #72,073 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of banco vs bloco

Shared letters: bco. Private to "banco": an. Private to "bloco": l.

"banco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bloco" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bancoabnco · bacno · bancco · bannco · banoc · bbanco · bnaco
  • blocobbloco · blcoo · blloco · blocco · blooc · bolco · lboco

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "banco" and "bloco" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbã.ku/ versus /ˈblɔ.ku/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "banco" or "bloco"?
"banco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #821 in our Portuguese list, against #2,307 for "bloco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bloco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,073 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banco" and "bloco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bloco vs bojo". 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 #72,073 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