figovsfugaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,609
“figo” frequency rank
#3,622
“fuga” frequency rank
36231
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature figo fuga
Definition figo ato ou efeito de escapar, fugir

Where the eye mixes figo and fuga

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. figo and fuga follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
figo
4 ch
fuga

Visual trap between figo and fuga

A purely visual mix-up. figo (/ˈfi.ɡɔ/) and fuga (/ˈfu.ɡɐ/) 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 36231, 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/. fuga is at rank #3,622, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfu.ɡɐ/.

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 36231, this pair ranks #30,636 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of figo vs fuga

Shared letters: fg. Private to "figo": io. Private to "fuga": au.

"figo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fuga" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • figo ← ffigo · fgio · figgo · fiog · ifgo
  • fuga ← ffuga · fgua · fuag · fugga · ufga

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "figo" for "fuga" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfi.ɡɔ/ versus /ˈfu.ɡɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "figo" vs "fuga" - which ranks higher?
"fuga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,622 in our Portuguese list, against #32,609 for "figo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "figo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fuga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,636 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "figo" and "fuga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "figo vs filão". 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 #30,636 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