olharvsolhosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#703
“olhar” frequency rank
#538
“olhos” frequency rank
1241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature olhar olhos
Definition ação de olhar plural de olho:

Where the eye mixes olhar and olhos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
olhar
5 ch
olhos

Why the eye confuses olhar with olhos

A purely visual mix-up. olhar (/ɔ.ˈʎaɾ/) and olhos (/ˈo.ʎʊs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1241, 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/. olhos is at rank #538, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈo.ʎʊs/.

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 1241, this pair ranks #74,354 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of olhar vs olhos

Shared letters: hlo. Private to "olhar": ar. Private to "olhos": s.

"olhar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "olhos" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • olharlohar · ohlar · olahr · olharr · olhhar · olhra · ollhar
  • olhoslohos · ohlos · olhhos · olhoss · olhso · ollhos · olohs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "olhar" for "olhos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɔ.ˈʎaɾ/ versus /ˈo.ʎʊs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "olhar" vs "olhos" - which ranks higher?
"olhos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #538 in our Portuguese list, against #703 for "olhar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "olhar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "olhos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,354 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "olhar" and "olhos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "olhai vs olhar". 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 #74,354 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