ocovsossWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#27,951
“oco” frequency rank
#31,905
“oss” frequency rank
59856
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oco oss
Definition que não tem miolo nos

Letter map: oco vs oss

Shared letters muted; letters that set oco and oss apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. oco (VCV) and oss (VCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
oco
3 ch
oss

Grammar separator: oco vs oss

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: oco is anadjective and ossapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59856, 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/. oss is at rank #31,905, tagged as apron.

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 59856, this pair ranks #7,969 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of oco vs oss

Shared letters: o. Private to "oco": c. Private to "oss": s.

"oco" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "oss" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "oco" and "oss" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oco" is an adjective and "oss" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "oco" or "oss" show up more?
"oco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,951 in our Portuguese list, against #31,905 for "oss". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "oco" and "oss". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "oco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "oss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,969 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oco" and "oss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oni vs oss". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #7,969 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