ídolovsioiôWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ídolo is a noun, ioiô is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ídolo” is a noun and “ioiô” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,585
“ídolo” frequency rank
#48,990
“ioiô” frequency rank
56575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ídolo ioiô
Definition figura, estátua que representa uma divindade que se adora que se começa, se para e se volta a fazer

Letter map: ídolo vs ioiô

Shared letters muted; letters that set ídolo and ioiô apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. ídolo runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against ioiô's 4 (VVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
ídolo
4 ch
ioiô

Part-of-speech tell for ídolo / ioiô

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ídolo is anoun and ioiôanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ídolo is recorded at frequency rank #7,585, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈi.du.lu/. ioiô is at rank #48,990, tagged as anadj.

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 56575, this pair ranks #9,877 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ídolo vs ioiô

Shared letters: o. Private to "ídolo": dlí. Private to "ioiô": iô.

"ídolo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "ioiô" · 4 letters · shape VVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ídolo" and "ioiô" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ídolo" is a noun and "ioiô" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ídolo" or "ioiô" show up more?
"ídolo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,585 in our Portuguese list, against #48,990 for "ioiô". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ídolo" and "ioiô".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ídolo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ioiô" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,877 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ídolo" and "ioiô" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs ioiô". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #9,877 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