bonévsbónusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,026
“boné” frequency rank
#22,889
“bónus” frequency rank
35915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boné bónus
Definition chapéu com pala na parte frontal bonificação

Where the eye mixes boné and bónus

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

4 ch
boné
5 ch
bónus

Look-alike desk: boné vs bónus

A purely visual mix-up. boné (/bo.ˈnɛ/) and bónus (/ˈbɔ.nuʃ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35915, 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/. bónus is at rank #22,889, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɔ.nuʃ/.

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 35915, this pair ranks #31,026 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of boné vs bónus

Shared letters: bn. Private to "boné": . Private to "bónus": suó.

"boné" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "bónus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "boné" for "bónus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bo.ˈnɛ/ versus /ˈbɔ.nuʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "boné" or "bónus"?
"boné" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,026 in our Portuguese list, against #22,889 for "bónus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "boné" and "bónus" 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 "bónus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,026 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boné" and "bónus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baús vs bónus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,026 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