laçovslaicoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#9,518
“laço” frequency rank
#25,719
“laico” frequency rank
35237
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laço laico
Definition nó que se desata facilmente quem ou que não pertence ao clero; secular, leigo, sem confissão

Letter map: laço vs laico

Shared letters muted; letters that set laço and laico apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. laço runs 4 letters (CVCV) against laico's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
laço
5 ch
laico

Part-of-speech tell for laço / laico

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: laço is anoun and laicoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laço is recorded at frequency rank #9,518, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈla.su/. laico is at rank #25,719, 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 35237, this pair ranks #31,837 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of laço vs laico

Shared letters: alo. Private to "laço": ç. Private to "laico": ci.

"laço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "laico" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laico ← alico · lacio · laicco · laioc · liaco · llaico

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laço" for "laico" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laço" is a noun and "laico" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "laço" or "laico"?
"laço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,518 in our Portuguese list, against #25,719 for "laico". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "laço" and "laico".

  • Full dictionary entry for "laço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,837 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laço" and "laico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs laico". 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 #31,837 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