laçovsloboWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,518
“laço” frequency rank
#4,408
“lobo” frequency rank
13926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laço lobo
Definition nó que se desata facilmente parte saliente de um órgão; porção de um órgão

Where the eye mixes laço and lobo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. laço and lobo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
laço
4 ch
lobo

Why the eye confuses laço with lobo

A purely visual mix-up. laço (/ˈla.su/) and lobo (/ˈlɔ.bʊ/) 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 13926, 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/. lobo is at rank #4,408, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɔ.bʊ/.

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 13926, this pair ranks #58,288 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of laço vs lobo

Shared letters: lo. Private to "laço": aç. Private to "lobo": b.

"laço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lobo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lobo ← lboo · llobo · lobbo · loob · olbo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laço" and "lobo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈla.su/ versus /ˈlɔ.bʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "laço" or "lobo" show up more?
"lobo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,408 in our Portuguese list, against #9,518 for "laço". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "laço" and "lobo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lobo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,288 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laço" and "lobo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laço vs loch". 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 #58,288 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