ceovscoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ceo is a noun, co is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ceo” is a noun and “co” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,861
“ceo” frequency rank
#2,005
“co” frequency rank
10866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ceo co
Definition nevoeiro; neblina que

Letter map: ceo vs co

Shared letters muted; letters that set ceo and co apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
ceo
2 ch
co

Role in the sentence - ceo and co

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ceo is anoun and coapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ceo is recorded at frequency rank #8,861, classified as anoun, pronounced /coː/. co is at rank #2,005, tagged as apron.

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 10866, this pair ranks #62,117 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ceo vs co

Shared letters: co. Private to "ceo": e. Private to "co": -.

"ceo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "co" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ceo" and "co" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ceo" is a noun and "co" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ceo" or "co" show up more?
"co" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,005 in our Portuguese list, against #8,861 for "ceo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "ceo" vs "co" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ceo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "co" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,117 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ceo" and "co" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ceo vs ciao". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #62,117 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