baúsvsbumWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,199
“baús” frequency rank
#16,457
“bum” frequency rank
63656
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baús bum
Definition plural de baú crescimento

Letter map: baús vs bum

Shared letters muted; letters that set baús and bum apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. baús runs 4 letters (CVVC) against bum's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
baús
3 ch
bum

Spelling & dictionary notes on baús vs bum

baús and bum are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baús is recorded at frequency rank #47,199, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɐ.ˈu/. bum is at rank #16,457, tagged as anoun.

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 63656, this pair ranks #6,099 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of baús vs bum

Shared letters: b. Private to "baús": asú. Private to "bum": mu.

"baús" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "bum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "baús" for "bum" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "baús" or "bum"?
"bum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,457 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

You've compared "baús" and "bum". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "baús" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,099 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baús" and "bum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baús vs bué". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #6,099 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