focovsfrioTell them apart

Quick tell: foco is a noun, frio is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“foco” is a noun and “frio” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,491
“foco” frequency rank
#1,432
“frio” frequency rank
2923
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foco frio
Definition nitidez de uma imagem falta de calor

Where the eye mixes foco and frio

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

4 ch
foco
4 ch
frio

Look-alike desk: foco vs frio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foco is /ˈfɔ.ko/ while frio is /ˈfɾi.u/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2923, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foco is recorded at frequency rank #1,491, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔ.ko/. frio is at rank #1,432, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɾi.u/.

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 2923, this pair ranks #72,302 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of foco vs frio

Shared letters: fo. Private to "foco": c. Private to "frio": ir.

"foco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "frio" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • focofcoo · ffoco · focco · fooc · ofco
  • frioffrio · firo · froi · frrio · rfio

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foco" and "frio" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foco" is a noun and "frio" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "foco" or "frio" show up more?
"frio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,432 in our Portuguese list, against #1,491 for "foco". 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 "foco" and "frio" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,302 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foco" and "frio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foco vs fosco". 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 #72,302 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