golfevsgolfoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,776
“golfe” frequency rank
#7,530
“golfo” frequency rank
16306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature golfe golfo
Definition 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 porção do mar parcialmente cercada por terra

Where the eye mixes golfe and golfo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. golfe and golfo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
golfe
5 ch
golfo

Why the eye confuses golfe with golfo

A purely visual mix-up. golfe (/ˈgow.fe/) 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 a single letter - e in “golfe” becomes o in “golfo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

golfe is recorded at frequency rank #8,776, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈgow.fe/. 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 16306, this pair ranks #55,265 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of golfe vs golfo

Shared letters: fglo. Private to "golfe": e. Private to "golfo": -.

"golfe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "golfo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • golfe ← ggolfe · glofe · gofle · golef · golffe · gollfe · oglfe
  • golfo ← ggolfo · glofo · goflo · golffo · gollfo · golof · oglfo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "golfe" for "golfo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈgow.fe/ versus /ˈgow.fu/, [ˈɡoʊ̯.fu]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "golfe" vs "golfo" - which ranks higher?
"golfo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,530 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 "golfe" and "golfo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "golfe" 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 #55,265 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "golfe" 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 #55,265 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