golevsgolfeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,806
“gole” frequency rank
#8,776
“golfe” frequency rank
26582
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gole golfe
Definition porção de líquido que se engole de uma vez 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 gole and golfe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against golfe's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
gole
5 ch
golfe

Look-alike desk: gole vs golfe

A purely visual mix-up. gole (/ˈɡɔ.lɨ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26582, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gole is recorded at frequency rank #17,806, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡɔ.lɨ/. 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 26582, this pair ranks #42,561 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gole vs golfe

Shared letters: eglo. Private to "gole": -. Private to "golfe": f.

"gole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "golfe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gole ← ggole · gloe · goel · golle · ogle
  • golfe ← ggolfe · glofe · gofle · golef · golffe · gollfe · oglfe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gole" for "golfe" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɡɔ.lɨ/ versus /ˈgow.fe/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gole" or "golfe"?
"golfe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,776 in our Portuguese list, against #17,806 for "gole". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gole" 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 #42,561 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gole" and "golfe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "GOAT vs gole". 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 #42,561 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