ladovsludoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#199
“lado” frequency rank
#47,465
“ludo” frequency rank
47664
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lado ludo
Definition parte direita ou esquerda de qualquer corpo jogo

Where the eye mixes lado and ludo

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

4 ch
lado
4 ch
ludo

Visual trap between lado and ludo

A purely visual mix-up. lado (/ˈla.du/) and ludo (/ˈlu.dɔ/) 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 - a in “lado” becomes u in “ludo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47664, 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/. ludo is at rank #47,465, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlu.dɔ/.

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 47664, this pair ranks #17,566 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lado vs ludo

Shared letters: dlo. Private to "lado": a. Private to "ludo": u.

"lado" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ludo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ladoaldo · laddo · laod · ldao · llado
  • ludolduo · lludo · luddo · uldo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lado" for "ludo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈla.du/ versus /ˈlu.dɔ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lado" or "ludo"?
"lado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #199 in our Portuguese list, against #47,465 for "ludo". 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 "ludo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,566 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lado" and "ludo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lúdico 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 #17,566 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