felvsfozTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,931
“fel” frequency rank
#8,056
“foz” frequency rank
50987
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fel foz
Definition bile, bílis lugar onde o rio vai desaguar

Where the eye mixes fel and foz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
fel
3 ch
foz

Why the eye confuses fel with foz

A purely visual mix-up. fel (/ˈfɛɫ/) and foz (/ˈfɔʃ/) 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 50987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fel is recorded at frequency rank #42,931, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɛɫ/. foz is at rank #8,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔʃ/.

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 50987, this pair ranks #13,990 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fel vs foz

Shared letters: f. Private to "fel": el. Private to "foz": oz.

"fel" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "foz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fel" for "foz" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfɛɫ/ versus /ˈfɔʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "fel" or "foz" show up more?
"foz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,056 in our Portuguese list, against #42,931 for "fel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "fel" and "foz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,990 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fel" and "foz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fel vs fern". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #13,990 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