lixovsludoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,246
“lixo” frequency rank
#47,465
“ludo” frequency rank
48711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lixo ludo
Definition tudo o que se varre para limpar uma casa jogo

Where the eye mixes lixo and ludo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lixo and ludo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
lixo
4 ch
ludo

Visual trap between lixo and ludo

A purely visual mix-up. lixo (/ˈli.ʃu/) and ludo (/ˈlu.dɔ/) 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 48711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lixo is recorded at frequency rank #1,246, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈli.ʃu/. ludo is at rank #47,465, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlu.dɔ/.

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 48711, this pair ranks #16,448 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lixo vs ludo

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lixo": ix. Private to "ludo": du.

"lixo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ludo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lixo ← ilxo · liox · lixxo · llixo · lxio
  • ludo ← lduo · lludo · luddo · uldo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lixo" and "ludo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈli.ʃu/ versus /ˈlu.dɔ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lixo" or "ludo"?
"lixo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,246 in our Portuguese list, against #47,465 for "ludo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lixo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ludo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,448 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lixo" and "ludo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lúdico vs ludo". 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 #16,448 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