paçovsprazoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,136
“paço” frequency rank
#1,796
“prazo” frequency rank
19932
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paço prazo
Definition residência oficial de um governante, monarca, soberano ou dignitário religioso data limite para execução de uma tarefa

Where the eye mixes paço and prazo

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

4 ch
paço
5 ch
prazo

Why the eye confuses paço with prazo

A purely visual mix-up. paço (/pˈasʊ/) and prazo (/ˈpɾa.zu/) 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 19932, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paço is recorded at frequency rank #18,136, classified as anoun, pronounced /pˈasʊ/. prazo is at rank #1,796, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɾa.zu/.

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 19932, this pair ranks #50,683 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paço vs prazo

Shared letters: aop. Private to "paço": ç. Private to "prazo": rz.

"paço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "prazo" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prazoparzo · pprazo · praoz · prazzo · prrazo · przao · rpazo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paço" and "prazo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pˈasʊ/ versus /ˈpɾa.zu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "paço" or "prazo"?
"prazo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,796 in our Portuguese list, against #18,136 for "paço". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "paço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prazo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,683 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paço" and "prazo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paço vs paçoca". 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 #50,683 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