bornvsboxTell them apart

Quick tell: born is a adjective, box is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#15,033
“born” frequency rank
#6,381
“box” frequency rank
21414
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature born box
Definition nato, que tem um dom ou uma habilidade natural: cada espaço subdividido por parede ou extrutura similar e que é destinado ao uso comercial dentro de uma construção maior

Letter map: born vs box

Shared letters muted; letters that set born and box apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
born
3 ch
box

Role in the sentence - born and box

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: born is anadjective and boxanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

born is recorded at frequency rank #15,033, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈboː(r)n/, /bɔə(ɹ)n/. box is at rank #6,381, 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 21414, this pair ranks #48,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of born vs box

Shared letters: bo. Private to "born": nr. Private to "box": x.

"born" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "box" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bornbborn · bonr · bornn · borrn · bron · obrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "born" and "box" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "born" is an adjective and "box" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "born" or "box" show up more?
"box" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,381 in our Portuguese list, against #15,033 for "born". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "born" and "box". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "born" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "box" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "born" and "box" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bojo vs born". 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 #48,860 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