palmavspalmoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,567
“palma” frequency rank
#41,647
“palmo” frequency rank
48214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palma palmo
Definition face interna e côncava da mão medida igual à distância entre as extremidades dos dedos polegar e mínimo de uma mão aberta

Where the eye mixes palma and palmo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
palma
5 ch
palmo

Why the eye confuses palma with palmo

A purely visual mix-up. palma (/ˈpaɫ.mɐ/) and palmo (/ˈpaɫ.mu/) 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 a single letter - a in “palma” becomes o in “palmo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palma is recorded at frequency rank #6,567, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpaɫ.mɐ/. palmo is at rank #41,647, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpaɫ.mu/.

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 48214, this pair ranks #16,986 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of palma vs palmo

Shared letters: almp. Private to "palma": -. Private to "palmo": o.

"palma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "palmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palmaaplma · palam · pallma · palmma · pamla · plama · ppalma
  • palmoaplmo · pallmo · palmmo · palom · pamlo · plamo · ppalmo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "palma" and "palmo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpaɫ.mɐ/ versus /ˈpaɫ.mu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "palma" vs "palmo" - which ranks higher?
"palma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,567 in our Portuguese list, against #41,647 for "palmo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "palma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "palmo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,986 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "palma" and "palmo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palmo vs pilão". 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 #16,986 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