figovsfilãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,609
“figo” frequency rank
#49,976
“filão” frequency rank
82585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature figo filão
Definition figo intrusão de rochas eruptivas em fendas

Letter map: figo vs filão

Shared letters muted; letters that set figo and filão apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. figo runs 4 letters (CVCV) against filão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
figo
5 ch
filão

Corpus notes: figo and filão

figo and filão 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

figo is recorded at frequency rank #32,609, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfi.ɡɔ/. 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 82585, this pair ranks #1,021 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of figo vs filão

Shared letters: fio. Private to "figo": g. Private to "filão": lã.

"figo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "filão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • figo ← ffigo · fgio · figgo · fiog · ifgo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "figo" and "filão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "figo" or "filão"?
"figo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,609 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "figo" 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 #1,021 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "figo" 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 #1,021 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