EisvselioWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,833
“Eis” frequency rank
#46,286
“elio” frequency rank
49119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Eis elio
Definition gelo hélio

Where the eye mixes Eis and elio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
Eis
4 ch
elio

Look-alike desk: Eis vs elio

A purely visual mix-up. Eis (/aɪ̯s/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and elio (/ˈɛljo/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Eis is recorded at frequency rank #2,833, classified as anoun, pronounced /aɪ̯s/ ouvir^(fonte ?). elio is at rank #46,286, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛljo/.

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 49119, this pair ranks #15,963 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Eis vs elio

Shared letters: ei. Private to "Eis": s. Private to "elio": lo.

"Eis" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "elio" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • elioeilo · ellio · eloi · leio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Eis" for "elio" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/aɪ̯s/ ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /ˈɛljo/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Eis" vs "elio" - which ranks higher?
"Eis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,833 in our Portuguese list, against #46,286 for "elio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Eis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "elio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,963 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Eis" and "elio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elio vs eólico". 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 #15,963 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