ocovsódioTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#27,951
“oco” frequency rank
#2,032
“ódio” frequency rank
29983
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oco ódio
Definition que não tem miolo aversão; rancor; desejo de ruína ou desgraça alheia

Where the eye mixes oco and ódio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. oco runs 3 letters (VCV) against ódio's 4 (VCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
oco
4 ch
ódio

Look-alike desk: oco vs ódio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: oco is /ˈo.ku/ while ódio is /ˈɔ.dju/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29983, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oco is recorded at frequency rank #27,951, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈo.ku/. ódio is at rank #2,032, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɔ.dju/.

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 29983, this pair ranks #38,503 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of oco vs ódio

Shared letters: o. Private to "oco": c. Private to "ódio": dió.

"oco" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ódio" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "oco" for "ódio" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oco" is an adjective and "ódio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "oco" vs "ódio" - which ranks higher?
"ódio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,032 in our Portuguese list, against #27,951 for "oco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "oco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ódio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,503 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oco" and "ódio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oco vs oni". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #38,503 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