falhovsfilãoConfusable pair

Quick tell: falho is a adjective, filão is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“falho” is an adjective and “filão” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,663
“falho” frequency rank
#49,976
“filão” frequency rank
73639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature falho filão
Definition que tem falha intrusão de rochas eruptivas em fendas

Letter map: falho vs filão

Shared letters muted; letters that set falho and filão apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. falho (CVCCV) and filão (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
falho
5 ch
filão

Part-of-speech tell for falho / filão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: falho is anadjective and filãoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

falho is recorded at frequency rank #23,663, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfa.ʎu/. filão is at rank #49,976, tagged as anoun.

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 73639, this pair ranks #2,721 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of falho vs filão

Shared letters: flo. Private to "falho": ah. Private to "filão": iã.

"falho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "filão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • falho ← aflho · fahlo · falhho · fallho · faloh · ffalho · flaho

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "falho" and "filão" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "falho" is an adjective and "filão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "falho" vs "filão" - which ranks higher?
"falho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,663 in our Portuguese list, against #49,976 for "filão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "falho" vs "filão" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "falho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "filão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,721 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "falho" and "filão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filão vs finado". 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 #2,721 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