bankvsbaúsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,803
“bank” frequency rank
#47,199
“baús” frequency rank
57002
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bank baús
Definition banco plural de baú

Where the eye mixes bank and baús

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

4 ch
bank
4 ch
baús

Visual trap between bank and baús

A purely visual mix-up. bank (/bɑŋk/) and baús (/bɐ.ˈu/) 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 57002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bank is recorded at frequency rank #9,803, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɑŋk/. baús is at rank #47,199, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɐ.ˈu/.

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 57002, this pair ranks #9,594 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bank vs baús

Shared letters: ab. Private to "bank": kn. Private to "baús": .

"bank" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "baús" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bankabnk · bakn · bankk · bannk · bbank · bnak

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bank" and "baús" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/bɑŋk/ versus /bɐ.ˈu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bank" or "baús" show up more?
"bank" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,803 in our Portuguese list, against #47,199 for "baús". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bank" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "baús" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,594 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bank" and "baús" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baús vs bué". 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 #9,594 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