dorsovsduroWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: dorso is a noun, duro is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dorso” is a noun and “duro” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,954
“dorso” frequency rank
#3,070
“duro” frequency rank
36024
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dorso duro
Definition costas difícil de quebrar ou de desfazer

Letter map: dorso vs duro

Shared letters muted; letters that set dorso and duro apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. dorso runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against duro's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dorso
4 ch
duro

Role in the sentence - dorso and duro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dorso is anoun and duroanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36024, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dorso is recorded at frequency rank #32,954, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdoɾ.su/. duro is at rank #3,070, tagged as anadj.

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 36024, this pair ranks #30,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dorso vs duro

Shared letters: dor. Private to "dorso": s. Private to "duro": u.

"dorso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "duro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dorso ← ddorso · doros · dorrso · dorsso · dosro · droso · odrso
  • duro ← dduro · druo · duor · durro · udro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dorso" and "duro" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dorso" is a noun and "duro" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dorso" vs "duro" - which ranks higher?
"duro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,070 in our Portuguese list, against #32,954 for "dorso". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "dorso" and "duro".

  • Full dictionary entry for "dorso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dorso" and "duro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dodo vs dorso". 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 #30,881 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