escalãovsescolaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,000
“escalão” frequency rank
#275
“escola” frequency rank
10275
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature escalão escola
Definition nível hierárquico instituição social que tem a missão de educar

Where the eye mixes escalão and escola

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. escalão runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against escola's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
escalão
6 ch
escola

Why the eye confuses escalão with escola

A purely visual mix-up. escalão (/iʃ.kɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and escola (/is.ˈkɔ.la/) 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 10275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

escalão is recorded at frequency rank #10,000, classified as anoun, pronounced /iʃ.kɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/. escola is at rank #275, tagged as anoun, pronounced /is.ˈkɔ.la/.

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 10275, this pair ranks #62,882 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of escalão vs escola

Shared letters: acelos. Private to "escalão": ã. Private to "escola": -.

"escalão" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "escola" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • escola ← ecsola · esccola · escloa · escoal · escolla · esocla · esscola · secola

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "escalão" for "escola" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/iʃ.kɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/ versus /is.ˈkɔ.la/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "escalão" or "escola" show up more?
"escola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #275 in our Portuguese list, against #10,000 for "escalão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "escalão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "escola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,882 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "escalão" and "escola" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "escoar vs escola". 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 #62,882 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