ombrovsoutroTell them apart

Quick tell: ombro is a noun, outro is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ombro” is a noun and “outro” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,562
“ombro” frequency rank
#141
“outro” frequency rank
5703
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ombro outro
Definition sombra que é diferente da pessoa ou da coisa que foi mencionada; que não é o mesmo; diverso, diferente

Where the eye mixes ombro and outro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ombro (VCCCV) and outro (VVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
ombro
5 ch
outro

Look-alike desk: ombro vs outro

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ombro is /ɔm.ˈbrɔ/ while outro is /ˈow.tɾu/. 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ombro is recorded at frequency rank #5,562, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɔm.ˈbrɔ/. outro is at rank #141, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈow.tɾu/.

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 5703, this pair ranks #68,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ombro vs outro

Shared letters: or. Private to "ombro": bm. Private to "outro": tu.

"ombro" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "outro" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ombro ← mobro · obmro · ombbro · ombor · ombrro · ommbro · omrbo
  • outro ← oturo · ourto · outor · outrro · outtro · uotro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ombro" and "outro" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ombro" is a noun and "outro" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ombro" or "outro"?
"outro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #141 in our Portuguese list, against #5,562 for "ombro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ombro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "outro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,861 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ombro" and "outro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ombro vs omo". 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 #68,861 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