lipvslixoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,031
“lip” frequency rank
#1,246
“lixo” frequency rank
30277
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lip lixo
Definition lábio tudo o que se varre para limpar uma casa

Where the eye mixes lip and lixo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
lip
4 ch
lixo

Visual trap between lip and lixo

A purely visual mix-up. lip (/lɪp/) and lixo (/ˈli.ʃu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30277, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lip is recorded at frequency rank #29,031, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɪp/. lixo is at rank #1,246, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈli.ʃu/.

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 30277, this pair ranks #38,128 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lip vs lixo

Shared letters: il. Private to "lip": p. Private to "lixo": ox.

"lip" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lixo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lixoilxo · liox · lixxo · llixo · lxio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lip" for "lixo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/lɪp/ versus /ˈli.ʃu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lip" or "lixo" show up more?
"lixo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,246 in our Portuguese list, against #29,031 for "lip". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lip" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lixo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,128 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lip" and "lixo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lied vs lip". 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 #38,128 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