Which to use
“fume” is a noun and “furo” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,617
- “fume” frequency rank
- #11,274
- “furo” frequency rank
- 43891
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fume | furo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | gás ou vapor com cheiro forte e perigoso de inalar. São partículas sólidas formadas por condensação do estado gasoso, por exemplo, óxidos de metais volatilizados. | estar furioso, impetuoso |
Where the eye mixes fume and furo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fume and furo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between fume and furo
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fume is /fjuːm/ while furo is /ˈfu.roː/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fume is recorded at frequency rank #32,617, classified as anoun, pronounced /fjuːm/. furo is at rank #11,274, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfu.roː/.
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 43891, this pair ranks #21,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fume vs furo
Shared letters: fu. Private to "fume": em. Private to "furo": or.
"fume" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "furo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fume" for "furo" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fume" or "furo"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "furo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fume" and "furo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fern vs furo". 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 #21,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.