bocão vs bordão, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“bocão” is an adjective and “bordão” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,450
“bocão” frequency rank: #30,857
“bordão” frequency rank: 71307
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	bocão	bordão
Definition	que fala mais da conta, linguarudo	vara de apoio

Letter map: bocão vs bordão

Shared letters muted; letters that set bocão and bordão apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. bocão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against bordão's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch

bocão

6 ch

bordão

Grammar separator: bocão vs bordão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bocão is anadjective and bordãoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71307, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bocão is recorded at frequency rank #40,450, classified as anadj, pronounced /bo.'koŋ/. bordão is at rank #30,857, 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 71307, this pair ranks #3,373 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bocão vs bordão

Shared letters: boã. Private to "bocão": c. Private to "bordão": dr.

"bocão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "bordão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bocão" for "bordão" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bocão" is an adjective and "bordão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "bocão" or "bordão" show up more?

"bordão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,857 in our Portuguese list, against #40,450 for "bocão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "bocão" vs "bordão" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "bocão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "bordão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #3,373 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"bocão" and "bordão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bocão vs borrão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,373 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.