demosvsdonosConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,749
“demos” frequency rank
#5,000
“donos” frequency rank
13749
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demos donos
Definition forma plural de demo forma plural de dono:

Where the eye mixes demos and donos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. demos and donos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
demos
5 ch
donos

Visual trap between demos and donos

A purely visual mix-up. demos (/ˈde.mʊs/) and donos (/ˈdo.nʊs/) 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 13749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demos is recorded at frequency rank #8,749, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈde.mʊs/. donos is at rank #5,000, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdo.nʊs/.

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 13749, this pair ranks #58,492 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of demos vs donos

Shared letters: dos. Private to "demos": em. Private to "donos": n.

"demos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "donos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demos ← ddemos · demmos · demoss · demso · deoms · dmeos · edmos
  • donos ← ddonos · dnoos · donnos · donoss · donso · doons · odnos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "demos" and "donos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈde.mʊs/ versus /ˈdo.nʊs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "demos" or "donos" show up more?
"donos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,000 in our Portuguese list, against #8,749 for "demos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "demos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "donos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,492 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demos" and "donos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damo vs demos". 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 #58,492 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