ladovslatoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#199
“lado” frequency rank
#22,703
“lato” frequency rank
22902
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lado lato
Definition parte direita ou esquerda de qualquer corpo verão

Where the eye mixes lado and lato

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lado and lato follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
lado
4 ch
lato

Why the eye confuses lado with lato

A purely visual mix-up. lado (/ˈla.du/) and lato (/ˈlatɔ/) 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 a single letter - d in “lado” becomes t in “lato”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22902, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lado is recorded at frequency rank #199, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈla.du/. 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 22902, this pair ranks #47,028 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lado vs lato

Shared letters: alo. Private to "lado": d. Private to "lato": t.

"lado" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lado ← aldo · laddo · laod · ldao · llado
  • lato ← laot · latto · llato · ltao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lado" for "lato" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈla.du/ versus /ˈlatɔ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lado" vs "lato" - which ranks higher?
"lado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #199 in our Portuguese list, against #22,703 for "lato". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lado" 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 #47,028 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lado" 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 #47,028 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