homovshornWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,307
“homo” frequency rank
#25,004
“horn” frequency rank
41311
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature homo horn
Definition homem, indivíduo da espécie humana chifre

Where the eye mixes homo and horn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
homo
4 ch
horn

Why the eye confuses homo with horn

A purely visual mix-up. homo (/ˈhɔ.mo/) and horn (/hɔɹn/) 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 41311, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

homo is recorded at frequency rank #16,307, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɔ.mo/. horn is at rank #25,004, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɔɹn/.

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 41311, this pair ranks #24,627 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of homo vs horn

Shared letters: ho. Private to "homo": m. Private to "horn": nr.

"homo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "horn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • homohhomo · hmoo · hommo · hoom · ohmo
  • hornhhorn · honr · hornn · horrn · hron · ohrn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "homo" for "horn" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈhɔ.mo/ versus /hɔɹn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "homo" vs "horn" - which ranks higher?
"homo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,307 in our Portuguese list, against #25,004 for "horn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "homo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "horn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,627 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "homo" and "horn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "homen vs horn". 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 #24,627 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