palatovspavãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,586
“palato” frequency rank
#19,519
“pavão” frequency rank
62105
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palato pavão
Definition divisão muscular e óssea que separa a cavidade nasal da cavidade oral pendão, flor masculina do milho

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set palato and pavão apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
palato
5 ch
pavão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. palato (/pɐ.ˈla.tu/) and pavão (/pa.'boŋ/) 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 62105, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palato is recorded at frequency rank #42,586, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɐ.ˈla.tu/. pavão is at rank #19,519, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pa.'boŋ/.

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 62105, this pair ranks #6,830 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of palato vs pavão

Shared letters: aop. Private to "palato": lt. Private to "pavão": .

"palato" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pavão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palatoaplato · paalto · palaot · palatto · pallato · paltao · plaato · ppalato

Frequency comparison

palato#42,586
pavão#19,519

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "palato" and "pavão" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɐ.ˈla.tu/ versus /pa.'boŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "palato" or "pavão"?
"pavão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,519 in our Portuguese list, against #42,586 for "palato". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering palato vs pavão

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “palato” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list