legvsluzConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#33,059
“leg” frequency rank
#604
“luz” frequency rank
33663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leg luz
Definition perna única radiação captada pelo olho humano

Where the eye mixes leg and luz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
leg
3 ch
luz

Why the eye confuses leg with luz

A purely visual mix-up. leg (/lɛɡ/) and luz (/ˈluʃ/) 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 33663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leg is recorded at frequency rank #33,059, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɛɡ/. luz is at rank #604, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈluʃ/.

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 33663, this pair ranks #33,779 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leg vs luz

Shared letters: l. Private to "leg": eg. Private to "luz": uz.

"leg" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "luz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leg" and "luz" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/lɛɡ/ versus /ˈluʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "leg" or "luz" show up more?
"luz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #604 in our Portuguese list, against #33,059 for "leg". 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 "leg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,779 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leg" and "luz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leg vs Lied". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #33,779 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