lagovslipoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,955
“lago” frequency rank
#37,894
“lipo” frequency rank
40849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lago lipo
Definition acumulação permanente de água numa depressão lábio, beiço

Where the eye mixes lago and lipo

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

4 ch
lago
4 ch
lipo

Why the eye confuses lago with lipo

A purely visual mix-up. lago (/ˈla.ɡu/) 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 40849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lago is recorded at frequency rank #2,955, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈla.ɡu/. 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 40849, this pair ranks #25,190 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lago vs lipo

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lago": ag. Private to "lipo": ip.

"lago" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lipo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lago ← laggo · laog · lgao · llago
  • lipo ← ilpo · liop · lippo · llipo · lpio

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lago" and "lipo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈla.ɡu/ versus /ˈli.po/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lago" vs "lipo" - which ranks higher?
"lago" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,955 in our Portuguese list, against #37,894 for "lipo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lago" 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 #25,190 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lago" 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 #25,190 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