Which to use
“fado” and “foco” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,319
- “fado” frequency rank
- #1,491
- “foco” frequency rank
- 23810
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fado | foco |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | destino | nitidez de uma imagem |
Where the eye mixes fado and foco
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fado vs foco
A purely visual mix-up. fado (/ˈfa.du/) and foco (/ˈfɔ.ko/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23810, 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/. foco is at rank #1,491, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔ.ko/.
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 23810, this pair ranks #45,937 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fado vs foco
Shared letters: fo. Private to "fado": ad. Private to "foco": c.
"fado" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "foco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fado" and "foco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "fado" or "foco" show up more?
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 "fado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,937 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fado" and "foco" 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 #45,937 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.