becovsbojoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,381
“beco” frequency rank
#44,722
“bojo” frequency rank
57103
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beco bojo
Definition viela, rua estreita barriga grande

Where the eye mixes beco and bojo

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

4 ch
beco
4 ch
bojo

Why the eye confuses beco with bojo

A purely visual mix-up. beco (/ˈbe.ku/) and bojo (/ˈbo.ʒu/) 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 57103, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beco is recorded at frequency rank #12,381, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbe.ku/. bojo is at rank #44,722, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbo.ʒu/.

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 57103, this pair ranks #9,539 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of beco vs bojo

Shared letters: bo. Private to "beco": ce. Private to "bojo": j.

"beco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "bojo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • becobbeco · bceo · becco · beoc · ebco
  • bojobbojo · bjoo · bojjo · booj · objo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "beco" and "bojo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbe.ku/ versus /ˈbo.ʒu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "beco" or "bojo" show up more?
"beco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,381 in our Portuguese list, against #44,722 for "bojo". 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 "beco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bojo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,539 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beco" and "bojo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bojo vs bolor". 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 #9,539 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