fumadovsfusãoTell them apart

Quick tell: fumado is a adjective, fusão is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#32,616
“fumado” frequency rank
#6,886
“fusão” frequency rank
39502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fumado fusão
Definition o mesmo que defumado o fato de fundir

Where the eye mixes fumado and fusão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fumado runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against fusão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fumado
5 ch
fusão

Why the eye confuses fumado with fusão

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fumado is /fu.ˈma.du/ while fusão is /fu.ˈzɐ̃w̃/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fumado is recorded at frequency rank #32,616, classified as anadj, pronounced /fu.ˈma.du/. fusão is at rank #6,886, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fu.ˈzɐ̃w̃/.

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 39502, this pair ranks #26,729 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fumado vs fusão

Shared letters: fou. Private to "fumado": adm. Private to "fusão": sã.

"fumado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "fusão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fumado ← ffumado · fmuado · fuamdo · fumaddo · fumaod · fumdao · fummado · ufmado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fumado" for "fusão" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fumado" is an adjective and "fusão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fumado" vs "fusão" - which ranks higher?
"fusão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,886 in our Portuguese list, against #32,616 for "fumado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fumado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fusão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,729 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fumado" and "fusão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "finado vs fumado". 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 #26,729 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