ladyvslagoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,418
“lady” frequency rank
#2,955
“lago” frequency rank
6373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lady lago
Definition dama acumulação permanente de água numa depressão

Where the eye mixes lady and lago

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lady
4 ch
lago

Why the eye confuses lady with lago

A purely visual mix-up. lady (/ˈleɪdi/) and lago (/ˈla.ɡu/) 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 6373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lady is recorded at frequency rank #3,418, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪdi/. lago is at rank #2,955, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈla.ɡu/.

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 6373, this pair ranks #68,071 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lady vs lago

Shared letters: al. Private to "lady": dy. Private to "lago": go.

"lady" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lago" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ladyaldy · laddy · ladyy · layd · lday · llady
  • lagolaggo · laog · lgao · llago

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lady" for "lago" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈleɪdi/ versus /ˈla.ɡu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lady" vs "lago" - which ranks higher?
"lago" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,955 in our Portuguese list, against #3,418 for "lady". 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 "lady" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lago" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,071 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lady" and "lago" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs lady". 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 #68,071 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