Which to use
“palma” and “palo” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,567
- “palma” frequency rank
- #35,711
- “palo” frequency rank
- 42278
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palma | palo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | face interna e côncava da mão | incêndio, fogo: |
Where the eye mixes palma and palo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses palma with palo
A purely visual mix-up. palma (/ˈpaɫ.mɐ/) and palo (/ˈpɑ.lo̞/) 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 42278, 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/. palo is at rank #35,711, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɑ.lo̞/.
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 42278, this pair ranks #23,537 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of palma vs palo
Shared letters: alp. Private to "palma": m. Private to "palo": o.
"palma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "palo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "palma" and "palo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "palma" or "palo" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "palma" and "palo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "palma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "palo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #23,537 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palma" and "palo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palo 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 #23,537 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.