danovsdodoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,994
“dano” frequency rank
#48,368
“dodo” frequency rank
53362
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dano dodo
Definition mal ou ofensa pessoal dodo

Where the eye mixes dano and dodo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dano and dodo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
dano
4 ch
dodo

Look-alike desk: dano vs dodo

A purely visual mix-up. dano (/ˈdɐ.nu/) and dodo (/ˈdoʊ.doʊ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53362, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dano is recorded at frequency rank #4,994, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɐ.nu/. dodo is at rank #48,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdoʊ.doʊ/.

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 53362, this pair ranks #12,083 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dano vs dodo

Shared letters: do. Private to "dano": an. Private to "dodo": -.

"dano" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dodo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dano ← adno · danno · daon · ddano · dnao
  • dodo ← ddodo · ddoo · doddo · dood · oddo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dano" and "dodo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdɐ.nu/ versus /ˈdoʊ.doʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dano" or "dodo" show up more?
"dano" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,994 in our Portuguese list, against #48,368 for "dodo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dano" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dodo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,083 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dano" and "dodo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dodo vs drogo". 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 #12,083 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