curvadovscurvoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,248
“curvado” frequency rank
#37,736
“curvo” frequency rank
83984
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature curvado curvo
Definition que se curvou; curvo; arqueado, envergado em forma de arco

Where the eye mixes curvado and curvo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. curvado runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against curvo's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
curvado
5 ch
curvo

Why the eye confuses curvado with curvo

A purely visual mix-up. curvado (/kuɾ.ˈva.du/) and curvo (/ˈkuɾ.vu/) 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 83984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

curvado is recorded at frequency rank #46,248, classified as anadj, pronounced /kuɾ.ˈva.du/. curvo is at rank #37,736, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkuɾ.vu/.

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 83984, this pair ranks #856 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of curvado vs curvo

Shared letters: coruv. Private to "curvado": ad. Private to "curvo": -.

"curvado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "curvo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • curvado ← ccurvado · cruvado · curavdo · currvado · curvaddo · curvaod · curvdao · curvvado
  • curvo ← ccurvo · cruvo · curov · currvo · curvvo · cuvro · ucrvo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "curvado" for "curvo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kuɾ.ˈva.du/ versus /ˈkuɾ.vu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "curvado" vs "curvo" - which ranks higher?
"curvo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,736 in our Portuguese list, against #46,248 for "curvado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "curvado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "curvo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #856 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "curvado" and "curvo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "curvado vs curvar". 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 #856 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