donasvsdonosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,263
“donas” frequency rank
#5,000
“donos” frequency rank
22263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donas donos
Definition forma feminina plural de dono: forma plural de dono:

Where the eye mixes donas and donos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. donas 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
donas
5 ch
donos

Why the eye confuses donas with donos

A purely visual mix-up. donas (/ˈdo.nɐs/) 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 differ by a single letter - a in “donas” becomes o in “donos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donas is recorded at frequency rank #17,263, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdo.nɐs/. 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 22263, this pair ranks #47,834 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of donas vs donos

Shared letters: dnos. Private to "donas": a. Private to "donos": -.

"donas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "donos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donas ← ddonas · dnoas · doans · donass · donnas · donsa · odnas
  • donos ← ddonos · dnoos · donnos · donoss · donso · doons · odnos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "donas" and "donos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdo.nɐs/ versus /ˈdo.nʊs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "donas" or "donos"?
"donos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,000 in our Portuguese list, against #17,263 for "donas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "donas" 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 #47,834 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "donas" and "donos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "domar vs donas". 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 #47,834 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