baúvsbitTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,895
“baú” frequency rank
#11,815
“bit” frequency rank
25710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baú bit
Definition caixa retangular com tampa convexa e geralmente revestida de couro cru ver bite

Where the eye mixes baú and bit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
baú
3 ch
bit

Visual trap between baú and bit

A purely visual mix-up. baú (/ba.ˈu/) and bit (/bit/) 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 25710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baú is recorded at frequency rank #13,895, classified as anoun, pronounced /ba.ˈu/. bit is at rank #11,815, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bit/.

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 25710, this pair ranks #43,552 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of baú vs bit

Shared letters: b. Private to "baú": . Private to "bit": it.

"baú" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "bit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "baú" and "bit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ba.ˈu/ versus /bit/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "baú" or "bit"?
"bit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,815 in our Portuguese list, against #13,895 for "baú". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "baú" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,552 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baú" and "bit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baú vs bué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #43,552 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