Which to use
“lento” is an adjective and “luto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,318
- “lento” frequency rank
- #5,112
- “luto” frequency rank
- 10430
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lento | luto |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | vagaroso | dor causada pela morte de alguém ou por grande calamidade |
Where the eye mixes lento and luto
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between lento and luto
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lento is /ˈlẽ.tu/ while luto is /ˈlu.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10430, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lento is recorded at frequency rank #5,318, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlẽ.tu/. luto is at rank #5,112, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlu.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 10430, this pair ranks #62,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lento vs luto
Shared letters: lot. Private to "lento": en. Private to "luto": u.
"lento" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "luto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lento" and "luto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lento" or "luto" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lento" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "luto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #62,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lento" and "luto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ludo vs luto". 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 #62,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.