oitovsolhoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,099
“oito” frequency rank
#1,251
“olho” frequency rank
2350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oito olho
Definition número equivalente a sete mais um; cardinalidade de um conjunto que contenha oito elementos distintos, representado pelo símbolo 8 (algarismos arábicos) ou VIII (algarismos romanos) órgão, geralmente aos pares, de vários animais responsável pela visão

Where the eye mixes oito and olho

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. oito (VVCV) and olho (VCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
oito
4 ch
olho

Visual trap between oito and olho

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: oito is /ˈoj.tu/ while olho is /ˈɔ.ʎʊ/. 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 2350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oito is recorded at frequency rank #1,099, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈoj.tu/. 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 2350, this pair ranks #73,058 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of oito vs olho

Shared letters: o. Private to "oito": it. Private to "olho": hl.

"oito" · 4 letters · shape VVCV  ·  "olho" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • oito ← ioto · oiot · oitto · otio
  • olho ← loho · ohlo · olhho · ollho · oloh

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "oito" and "olho" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oito" is an adjective and "olho" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "oito" or "olho"?
"oito" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,099 in our Portuguese list, against #1,251 for "olho". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "oito" 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 #73,058 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oito" and "olho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "olhai vs olho". 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 #73,058 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