impulsovsimpuroWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,748
“impulso” frequency rank
#41,064
“impuro” frequency rank
46812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature impulso impuro
Definition desejo repentino de fazer algo (sem pensar nas consequências) que não é puro

Where the eye mixes impulso and impuro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. impulso runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against impuro's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
impulso
6 ch
impuro

Look-alike desk: impulso vs impuro

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impulso is /ĩ.ˈpuɫ.su/ while impuro is /ĩ.ˈpu.ɾu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

impulso is recorded at frequency rank #5,748, classified as anoun, pronounced /ĩ.ˈpuɫ.su/. impuro is at rank #41,064, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ĩ.ˈpu.ɾu/.

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 46812, this pair ranks #18,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of impulso vs impuro

Shared letters: imopu. Private to "impulso": ls. Private to "impuro": r.

"impulso" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "impuro" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • impulso ← immpulso · impluso · imppulso · impullso · impulos · impulsso · impuslo · imuplso
  • impuro ← immpuro · imppuro · impruo · impuor · impurro · imupro · ipmuro · mipuro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "impulso" and "impuro" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "impulso" is a noun and "impuro" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "impulso" or "impuro" show up more?
"impulso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,748 in our Portuguese list, against #41,064 for "impuro". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "impulso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impuro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "impulso" and "impuro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "import vs impuro". 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 #18,491 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