gatevsgoleTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,008
“gate” frequency rank
#17,806
“gole” frequency rank
37814
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gate gole
Definition portão; portal; porteira porção de líquido que se engole de uma vez

Where the eye mixes gate and gole

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

4 ch
gate
4 ch
gole

Visual trap between gate and gole

A purely visual mix-up. gate (/ɡeɪt/) and gole (/ˈɡɔ.lɨ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gate is recorded at frequency rank #20,008, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡeɪt/. gole is at rank #17,806, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡɔ.lɨ/.

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 37814, this pair ranks #28,754 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gate vs gole

Shared letters: eg. Private to "gate": at. Private to "gole": lo.

"gate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "gole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gateagte · gaet · gatte · ggate · gtae
  • goleggole · gloe · goel · golle · ogle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gate" for "gole" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɡeɪt/ versus /ˈɡɔ.lɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gate" vs "gole" - which ranks higher?
"gole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,806 in our Portuguese list, against #20,008 for "gate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,754 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gate" and "gole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gate vs GOAT". 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 #28,754 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