palmovspasmoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: palmo is a noun, pasmo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“palmo” is a noun and “pasmo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,647
“palmo” frequency rank
#42,145
“pasmo” frequency rank
83792
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palmo pasmo
Definition medida igual à distância entre as extremidades dos dedos polegar e mínimo de uma mão aberta espantado

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set palmo and pasmo apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
palmo
5 ch
pasmo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: palmo is /ˈpaɫ.mu/ while pasmo is /ˈpaʒ.mu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “palmo” becomes s in “pasmo”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83792, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palmo is recorded at frequency rank #41,647, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpaɫ.mu/. pasmo is at rank #42,145, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpaʒ.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 83792, this pair ranks #874 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of palmo vs pasmo

Shared letters: amop. Private to "palmo": l. Private to "pasmo": s.

"palmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pasmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palmoaplmo · pallmo · palmmo · palom · pamlo · plamo · ppalmo
  • pasmoapsmo · pamso · pasmmo · pasom · passmo · ppasmo · psamo

Frequency comparison

palmo#41,647
pasmo#42,145

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "palmo" and "pasmo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "palmo" is a noun and "pasmo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "palmo" or "pasmo"?
"palmo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,647 in our Portuguese list, against #42,145 for "pasmo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering palmo vs pasmo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “palmo”; for an adjective, it's “pasmo”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “palmo” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list