laço vs lenço, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#9,518
“laço” frequency rank: #15,847
“lenço” frequency rank: 25365
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	laço	lenço
Definition	nó que se desata facilmente	pedaço de pano quadrado que serve para:

Where the eye mixes laço and lenço

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

4 ch

laço

5 ch

lenço

Visual trap between laço and lenço

A purely visual mix-up. laço (/ˈla.su/) and lenço (/ˈlẽ.su/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25365, 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/. lenço is at rank #15,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlẽ.su/.

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 25365, this pair ranks #43,979 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of laço vs lenço

Shared letters: loç. Private to "laço": a. Private to "lenço": en.

"laço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lenço" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laço" and "lenço" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (/ˈla.su/ versus /ˈlẽ.su/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "laço" or "lenço"?

"laço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,518 in our Portuguese list, against #15,847 for "lenço". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "laço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lenço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #43,979 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"laço" and "lenço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laço vs loch". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #43,979 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.