feiovsfeiosoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,727
“feio” frequency rank
#48,422
“feioso” frequency rank
53149
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feio feioso
Definition não estético, horrendo diz-se do que é relativamente feio (especialmente falando de pessoa)

Letter map: feio vs feioso

Shared letters muted; letters that set feio and feioso apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
feio
6 ch
feioso

Spelling & dictionary notes on feio vs feioso

feio and feioso are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “feio” sits inside “feioso”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feio is recorded at frequency rank #4,727, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɐj.u/. feioso is at rank #48,422, tagged as anadj.

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 53149, this pair ranks #12,243 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of feio vs feioso

Shared letters: efio. Private to "feio": -. Private to "feioso": s.

"feio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "feioso" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feioefio · feoi · ffeio · fieo
  • feiosoefioso · feioos · feiosso · feisoo · feoiso · ffeioso · fieoso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feio" for "feioso" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “feio” sits inside “feioso”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "feio" or "feioso" show up more?
"feio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,727 in our Portuguese list, against #48,422 for "feioso". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "feio" and "feioso".

  • Full dictionary entry for "feio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feioso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,243 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feio" and "feioso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feioso vs friso". 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 #12,243 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