figovsfrisoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,609
“figo” frequency rank
#47,371
“friso” frequency rank
79980
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature figo friso
Definition figo faixa ou tira ao longo de uma parede usada como ornamento

Where the eye mixes figo and friso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. figo runs 4 letters (CVCV) against friso's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
figo
5 ch
friso

Visual trap between figo and friso

A purely visual mix-up. figo (/ˈfi.ɡɔ/) and friso (/ˈfɾi.zu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79980, 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/. friso is at rank #47,371, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɾi.zu/.

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 79980, this pair ranks #1,405 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of figo vs friso

Shared letters: fio. Private to "figo": g. Private to "friso": rs.

"figo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "friso" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • figoffigo · fgio · figgo · fiog · ifgo
  • frisoffriso · firso · frios · frisso · frriso · frsio · rfiso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "figo" for "friso" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfi.ɡɔ/ versus /ˈfɾi.zu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "figo" vs "friso" - which ranks higher?
"figo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,609 in our Portuguese list, against #47,371 for "friso". 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 "figo" and "friso" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "figo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "friso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,405 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "figo" and "friso" 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 #1,405 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