laborvslatoTell them apart

Quick tell: labor is a verb, lato is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“labor” is a verb and “lato” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,447
“labor” frequency rank
#22,703
“lato” frequency rank
49150
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature labor lato
Definition escorregar, cair verão

Where the eye mixes labor and lato

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
labor
4 ch
lato

Visual trap between labor and lato

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: labor is /ˈlaː.bor/, /ˈɫaː.bɔr/ while lato is /ˈlatɔ/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

labor is recorded at frequency rank #26,447, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈlaː.bor/, /ˈɫaː.bɔr/. lato is at rank #22,703, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlatɔ/.

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 49150, this pair ranks #15,930 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of labor vs lato

Shared letters: alo. Private to "labor": br. Private to "lato": t.

"labor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laboralbor · labbor · laborr · labro · laobr · lbaor · llabor
  • latolaot · latto · llato · ltao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "labor" and "lato" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "labor" is a verb and "lato" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "labor" or "lato" show up more?
"lato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,703 in our Portuguese list, against #26,447 for "labor". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "labor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,930 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "labor" and "lato" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs lato". 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 #15,930 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