ecovseleWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: eco is a intj, ele is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“eco” is an intj and “ele” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,146
“eco” frequency rank
#38
“ele” frequency rank
7184
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eco ele
Definition expressa nojo pronome pessoal da terceira pessoa do singular

Where the eye mixes eco and ele

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
eco
3 ch
ele

Visual trap between eco and ele

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eco is /ˈɛ.ku/ while ele is /ˈe.li/, /ˈe.lɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eco is recorded at frequency rank #7,146, classified as anintj, pronounced /ˈɛ.ku/. ele is at rank #38, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈe.li/, /ˈe.lɪ/.

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 7184, this pair ranks #67,014 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of eco vs ele

Shared letters: e. Private to "eco": co. Private to "ele": l.

"eco" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ele" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eco" for "ele" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eco" is an intj and "ele" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "eco" vs "ele" - which ranks higher?
"ele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38 in our Portuguese list, against #7,146 for "eco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "eco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ele" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,014 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eco" and "ele" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eco vs elio". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #67,014 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