barcovsblocoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,745
“barco” frequency rank
#2,307
“bloco” frequency rank
6052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barco bloco
Definition veículo de transporte aquático massa volumosa e compacta de uma substância pesada

Where the eye mixes barco and bloco

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

5 ch
barco
5 ch
bloco

Look-alike desk: barco vs bloco

A purely visual mix-up. barco (/ˈbaɾ.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 6052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barco is recorded at frequency rank #3,745, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaɾ.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 6052, this pair ranks #68,465 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of barco vs bloco

Shared letters: bco. Private to "barco": ar. Private to "bloco": l.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barcoabrco · bacro · barcco · baroc · barrco · bbarco · braco
  • blocobbloco · blcoo · blloco · blocco · blooc · bolco · lboco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "barco" and "bloco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbaɾ.ku/ versus /ˈblɔ.ku/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "barco" or "bloco" show up more?
"bloco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,307 in our Portuguese list, against #3,745 for "barco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "barco" 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 #68,465 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "barco" and "bloco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barco vs brio". 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 #68,465 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