leovslosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: leo is a noun, los is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leo” is a noun and “los” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,079
“leo” frequency rank
#394
“los” frequency rank
4473
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leo los
Definition leão os, pronome demonstrativo

Letter map: leo vs los

Shared letters muted; letters that set leo and los apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
leo
3 ch
los

Role in the sentence - leo and los

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leo is anoun and losapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4473, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leo is recorded at frequency rank #4,079, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈle.oː/ ouvir^(fonte ?). los is at rank #394, tagged as apron.

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 4473, this pair ranks #70,414 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leo vs los

Shared letters: lo. Private to "leo": e. Private to "los": s.

"leo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "los" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leo" for "los" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leo" is a noun and "los" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leo" or "los"?
"los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #394 in our Portuguese list, against #4,079 for "leo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "leo" vs "los" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,414 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leo" and "los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leo vs ludo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #70,414 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