golvsgolfeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,746
“gol” frequency rank
#8,776
“golfe” frequency rank
10522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gol golfe
Definition pontuação em certos tipos de jogos como o futebol e andebol desporto individual cujo objetivo é percorrer uma série de caminhos (percursos) ao ar livre, levando uma bolinha de posições definidas até os chamados buracos à base de tacadas com um taco desportivo

Where the eye mixes gol and golfe

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

3 ch
gol
5 ch
golfe

Look-alike desk: gol vs golfe

A purely visual mix-up. gol (/ˈgow/) and golfe (/ˈgow.fe/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “gol” sits inside “golfe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gol is recorded at frequency rank #1,746, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈgow/. golfe is at rank #8,776, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈgow.fe/.

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 10522, this pair ranks #62,553 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gol vs golfe

Shared letters: glo. Private to "gol": -. Private to "golfe": ef.

"gol" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "golfe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • golfe ← ggolfe · glofe · gofle · golef · golffe · gollfe · oglfe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gol" for "golfe" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈgow/ versus /ˈgow.fe/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "gol" or "golfe" show up more?
"gol" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,746 in our Portuguese list, against #8,776 for "golfe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "gol" and "golfe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "golfe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,553 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gol" and "golfe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gol vs GQ". 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 #62,553 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