onivsonionConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#49,618
“oni” frequency rank
#45,507
“onion” frequency rank
95125
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oni onion
Definition pronome pessoal do caso nominativo da terceira pessoa do plural de gênero masculino pessoal, eles cebola

Letter map: oni vs onion

Shared letters muted; letters that set oni and onion apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
oni
5 ch
onion

Role in the sentence - oni and onion

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: oni is apronoun and onionanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “oni” sits inside “onion”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 95125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oni is recorded at frequency rank #49,618, classified as apron. onion is at rank #45,507, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʌnjən/.

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 95125, this pair ranks #74 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of oni vs onion

Shared letters: ino. Private to "oni": -. Private to "onion": -.

"oni" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "onion" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • onionnoion · oinon · onino · onionn · onnion · onoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "oni" and "onion" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oni" is a pronoun and "onion" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "oni" vs "onion" - which ranks higher?
"onion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,507 in our Portuguese list, against #49,618 for "oni". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "oni" and "onion". Here's where to go from here.

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