olharvsolhoConfusable pair

Which to use

“olhar” and “olho” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#703
“olhar” frequency rank
#1,251
“olho” frequency rank
1954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature olhar olho
Definition ação de olhar órgão, geralmente aos pares, de vários animais responsável pela visão

Where the eye mixes olhar and olho

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. olhar runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against olho's 4 (VCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
olhar
4 ch
olho

Visual trap between olhar and olho

A purely visual mix-up. olhar (/ɔ.ˈʎaɾ/) and olho (/ˈɔ.ʎʊ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

olhar is recorded at frequency rank #703, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɔ.ˈʎaɾ/. 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 1954, this pair ranks #73,568 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of olhar vs olho

Shared letters: hlo. Private to "olhar": ar. Private to "olho": -.

"olhar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "olho" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • olhar ← lohar · ohlar · olahr · olharr · olhhar · olhra · ollhar
  • olho ← loho · ohlo · olhho · ollho · oloh

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "olhar" and "olho" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɔ.ˈʎaɾ/ versus /ˈɔ.ʎʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "olhar" or "olho"?
"olhar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #703 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 "olhar" 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 #73,568 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "olhar" 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 #73,568 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