bonévsbonecoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,026
“boné” frequency rank
#9,299
“boneco” frequency rank
22325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boné boneco
Definition chapéu com pala na parte frontal figura humana constituída de pano, madeira, plástico, porcelana entre outros materiais, é dedicado a crianças

Where the eye mixes boné and boneco

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

4 ch
boné
6 ch
boneco

Visual trap between boné and boneco

A purely visual mix-up. boné (/bo.ˈnɛ/) and boneco (/bu.ˈnɛ.ku/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

boné is recorded at frequency rank #13,026, classified as anoun, pronounced /bo.ˈnɛ/. boneco is at rank #9,299, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bu.ˈnɛ.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 22325, this pair ranks #47,751 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of boné vs boneco

Shared letters: bno. Private to "boné": é. Private to "boneco": ce.

"boné" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "boneco" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bonecobboneco · bnoeco · boenco · bonceo · bonecco · boneoc · bonneco · obneco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "boné" for "boneco" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bo.ˈnɛ/ versus /bu.ˈnɛ.ku/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "boné" or "boneco" show up more?
"boneco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,299 in our Portuguese list, against #13,026 for "boné". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "boné" and "boneco" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "boné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "boneco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,751 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boné" and "boneco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bile vs boné". 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 #47,751 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