flovsfozWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: flo is a verb, foz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“flo” is a verb and “foz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,750
“flo” frequency rank
#8,056
“foz” frequency rank
34806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flo foz
Definition respirar. lugar onde o rio vai desaguar

Where the eye mixes flo and foz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
flo
3 ch
foz

Look-alike desk: flo vs foz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: flo is /floː/ while foz is /ˈfɔʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flo is recorded at frequency rank #26,750, classified as averb, pronounced /floː/. 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 34806, this pair ranks #32,375 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of flo vs foz

Shared letters: fo. Private to "flo": l. Private to "foz": z.

"flo" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "foz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "flo" for "foz" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "flo" is a verb and "foz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "flo" 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 #26,750 for "flo". 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 "flo" 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 #32,375 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flo" and "foz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filão vs flo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #32,375 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