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 eye mixes palato and pavão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. palato runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against pavão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: palato vs pavão
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": vã.
"palato" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "pavão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- palato ← aplato · paalto · palaot · palatto · pallato · paltao · plaato · ppalato
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "palato" and "pavão" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "palato" or "pavão" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "palato" and "pavão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "palato" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pavão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #6,830 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palato" and "pavão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palato vs Pluto". 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 #6,830 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.