Which to use
“palmo” and “pavão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,647
- “palmo” frequency rank
- #19,519
- “pavão” frequency rank
- 61166
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palmo | pavão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | medida igual à distância entre as extremidades dos dedos polegar e mínimo de uma mão aberta | pendão, flor masculina do milho |
Where the eye mixes palmo and pavão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. palmo (CVCCV) and pavão (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses palmo with pavão
A purely visual mix-up. palmo (/ˈpaɫ.mu/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61166, 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/. 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 61166, this pair ranks #7,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of palmo vs pavão
Shared letters: aop. Private to "palmo": lm. Private to "pavão": vã.
"palmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pavão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- palmo ← aplmo · pallmo · palmmo · palom · pamlo · plamo · ppalmo
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "palmo" for "pavão" ever safe?
Which is more common, "palmo" or "pavão"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "palmo" and "pavão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "palmo" 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 #7,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palmo" and "pavão" 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 #7,274 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.