Which to use
“fado” and “fígado” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,319
- “fado” frequency rank
- #6,298
- “fígado” frequency rank
- 28617
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fado | fígado |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | destino | parte do organismo animal onde se produzem a secreção biliar e a secreção glicogênica |
Where the eye mixes fado and fígado
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fado runs 4 letters (CVCV) against fígado's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fado and fígado
A purely visual mix-up. fado (/ˈfa.du/) and fígado (/ˈfi.ɡɐ.du/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fado is recorded at frequency rank #22,319, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfa.du/. fígado is at rank #6,298, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfi.ɡɐ.du/.
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 28617, this pair ranks #40,189 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fado vs fígado
Shared letters: adfo. Private to "fado": -. Private to "fígado": gí.
"fado" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "fígado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fado ← afdo · faddo · faod · fdao · ffado
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fado" and "fígado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "fado" or "fígado" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fígado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,189 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fado" and "fígado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fado vs fava". 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 #40,189 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.