golevsgulaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,806
“gole” frequency rank
#35,619
“gula” frequency rank
53425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gole gula
Definition porção de líquido que se engole de uma vez desejo excessivo de comer

Where the eye mixes gole and gula

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. gole and gula follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
gole
4 ch
gula

Why the eye confuses gole with gula

A purely visual mix-up. gole (/ˈɡɔ.lɨ/) and gula (/ˈɡu.lɐ/) 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 53425, 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/. gula is at rank #35,619, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡu.lɐ/.

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 53425, this pair ranks #12,034 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gole vs gula

Shared letters: gl. Private to "gole": eo. Private to "gula": au.

"gole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "gula" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gole ← ggole · gloe · goel · golle · ogle
  • gula ← ggula · glua · gual · gulla · ugla

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gole" and "gula" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɡɔ.lɨ/ versus /ˈɡu.lɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "gole" or "gula" show up more?
"gole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,806 in our Portuguese list, against #35,619 for "gula". 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 "gula" 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 "gula" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,034 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gole" and "gula" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grua vs gula". 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 #12,034 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