lençovslenteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,847
“lenço” frequency rank
#9,881
“lente” frequency rank
25728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lenço lente
Definition pedaço de pano quadrado que serve para: professor universitário

Where the eye mixes lenço and lente

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

5 ch
lenço
5 ch
lente

Look-alike desk: lenço vs lente

A purely visual mix-up. lenço (/ˈlẽ.su/) and lente (/ˈlẽ.tɨ/) 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 25728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lenço is recorded at frequency rank #15,847, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlẽ.su/. lente is at rank #9,881, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlẽ.tɨ/.

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 25728, this pair ranks #43,535 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lenço vs lente

Shared letters: eln. Private to "lenço": . Private to "lente": t.

"lenço" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "lente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lenteelnte · lenet · lennte · lentte · letne · llente · lnete

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lenço" for "lente" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈlẽ.su/ versus /ˈlẽ.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lenço" or "lente" show up more?
"lente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,881 in our Portuguese list, against #15,847 for "lenço". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lenço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,535 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lenço" and "lente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lenço vs lince". 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 #43,535 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