locovsluxoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: loco is a adjective, luxo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“loco” is an adjective and “luxo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,910
“loco” frequency rank
#3,781
“luxo” frequency rank
15691
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loco luxo
Definition louco ostentação de riqueza, esplendor, fausto:

Where the eye mixes loco and luxo

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

4 ch
loco
4 ch
luxo

Visual trap between loco and luxo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: loco is /ˈlo.ko/ while luxo is /ˈlu.ʃu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loco is recorded at frequency rank #11,910, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlo.ko/. luxo is at rank #3,781, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlu.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 15691, this pair ranks #56,064 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of loco vs luxo

Shared letters: lo. Private to "loco": c. Private to "luxo": ux.

"loco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "luxo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • locolcoo · lloco · locco · looc · olco
  • luxolluxo · luox · luxxo · lxuo · ulxo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "loco" and "luxo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "loco" is an adjective and "luxo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "loco" or "luxo" show up more?
"luxo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,781 in our Portuguese list, against #11,910 for "loco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "loco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luxo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,064 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loco" and "luxo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loch vs loco". 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 #56,064 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