leitevslentoTell them apart

Quick tell: leite is a noun, lento is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leite” is a noun and “lento” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,711
“leite” frequency rank
#5,318
“lento” frequency rank
7029
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leite lento
Definition líquido branco segregado pelas glândulas mamárias, existentes nas fêmeas dos mamíferos vagaroso

Where the eye mixes leite and lento

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

5 ch
leite
5 ch
lento

Why the eye confuses leite with lento

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leite is /ˈlej.te/ while lento is /ˈlẽ.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leite is recorded at frequency rank #1,711, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlej.te/. lento is at rank #5,318, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlẽ.tu/.

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 7029, this pair ranks #67,221 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leite vs lento

Shared letters: elt. Private to "leite": i. Private to "lento": no.

"leite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "lento" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leiteleiet · leitte · letie · liete · lleite
  • lentoelnto · lennto · lenot · lentto · letno · llento · lneto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leite" and "lento" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leite" is a noun and "lento" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "leite" vs "lento" - which ranks higher?
"leite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,711 in our Portuguese list, against #5,318 for "lento". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lento" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,221 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leite" and "lento" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leite vs lime". 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 #67,221 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