golvsgolfoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,746
“gol” frequency rank
#7,530
“golfo” frequency rank
9276
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gol golfo
Definition pontuação em certos tipos de jogos como o futebol e andebol porção do mar parcialmente cercada por terra

Where the eye mixes gol and golfo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
gol
5 ch
golfo

Visual trap between gol and golfo

A purely visual mix-up. gol (/ˈgow/) and golfo (/ˈgow.fu/, [ˈɡoʊ̯.fu]) 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 “golfo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9276, 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/. golfo is at rank #7,530, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈgow.fu/, [ˈɡoʊ̯.fu].

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 9276, this pair ranks #64,210 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gol vs golfo

Shared letters: glo. Private to "gol": -. Private to "golfo": f.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • golfoggolfo · glofo · goflo · golffo · gollfo · golof · oglfo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gol" and "golfo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈgow/ versus /ˈgow.fu/, [ˈɡoʊ̯.fu]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gol" vs "golfo" - which ranks higher?
"gol" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,746 in our Portuguese list, against #7,530 for "golfo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "golfo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,210 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gol" and "golfo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "golfo vs gonzo". 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 #64,210 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