Which to use
“laço” and “lipo” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,518
- “laço” frequency rank
- #37,894
- “lipo” frequency rank
- 47412
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laço | lipo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nó que se desata facilmente | lábio, beiço |
Where the eye mixes laço and lipo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. laço and lipo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses laço with lipo
A purely visual mix-up. laço (/ˈla.su/) and lipo (/ˈli.po/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47412, 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/. lipo is at rank #37,894, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈli.po/.
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 47412, this pair ranks #17,842 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laço vs lipo
Shared letters: lo. Private to "laço": aç. Private to "lipo": ip.
"laço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lipo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lipo ← ilpo · liop · lippo · llipo · lpio
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "laço" for "lipo" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "laço" or "lipo" show up more?
What to do next
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 "lipo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,842 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laço" and "lipo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lipo vs ludo". 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 #17,842 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.