ocovsolhoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#27,951
“oco” frequency rank
#1,251
“olho” frequency rank
29202
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oco olho
Definition que não tem miolo órgão, geralmente aos pares, de vários animais responsável pela visão

Where the eye mixes oco and olho

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

3 ch
oco
4 ch
olho

Look-alike desk: oco vs olho

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: oco is /ˈo.ku/ while olho is /ˈɔ.ʎʊ/. 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 29202, 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/. olho is at rank #1,251, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɔ.ʎʊ/.

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 29202, this pair ranks #39,503 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of oco vs olho

Shared letters: o. Private to "oco": c. Private to "olho": hl.

"oco" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "olho" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • olholoho · ohlo · olhho · ollho · oloh

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "oco" and "olho" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oco" is an adjective and "olho" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "oco" or "olho"?
"olho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,251 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 "olho" 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 "olho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,503 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oco" and "olho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oco vs oni". 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 #39,503 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