fil vs fio, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#35,592
“fil” frequency rank: #3,904
“fio” frequency rank: 39496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fil	fio
Definition	fio	linha

Letter map: fil vs fio

Shared letters muted; letters that set fil and fio apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

fil

3 ch

fio

Spelling & dictionary notes on fil vs fio

fil and fio 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 a single letter - l in “fil” becomes o in “fio”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fil is recorded at frequency rank #35,592, classified as anoun, pronounced /fil/. fio is at rank #3,904, 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 39496, this pair ranks #26,739 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fil vs fio

Shared letters: fi. Private to "fil": l. Private to "fio": o.

"fil" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "fio" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fil" for "fio" ever safe?

No. They differ by a single letter - l in “fil” becomes o in “fio”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "fil" or "fio"?

"fio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,904 in our Portuguese list, against #35,592 for "fil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "fil" and "fio". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "fil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "fio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #26,739 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"fil" and "fio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fil vs filão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #26,739 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.