lesãovsloçãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,219
“lesão” frequency rank
#32,245
“loção” frequency rank
37464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lesão loção
Definition contusão líquido perfumado e levemente alcoolizado para o tratamento da pele e dos cabelos

Where the eye mixes lesão and loção

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lesão and loção follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
lesão
5 ch
loção

Why the eye confuses lesão with loção

A purely visual mix-up. lesão (/lɨ.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and loção (/lu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 37464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lesão is recorded at frequency rank #5,219, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɨ.ˈzɐ̃w̃/. loção is at rank #32,245, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 37464, this pair ranks #29,144 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lesão vs loção

Shared letters: loã. Private to "lesão": es. Private to "loção": ç.

"lesão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "loção" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lesão" and "loção" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/lɨ.ˈzɐ̃w̃/ versus /lu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lesão" or "loção"?
"lesão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,219 in our Portuguese list, against #32,245 for "loção". 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 "lesão" and "loção" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lesão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loção" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,144 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lesão" and "loção" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loção vs loch". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #29,144 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