Which to use
“palmo” and “pavio” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,647
- “palmo” frequency rank
- #38,849
- “pavio” frequency rank
- 80496
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palmo | pavio |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | medida igual à distância entre as extremidades dos dedos polegar e mínimo de uma mão aberta | cabo das velas, círios, candeias, mecha |
Where the eye mixes palmo and pavio
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. palmo (CVCCV) and pavio (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 pavio
A purely visual mix-up. palmo (/ˈpaɫ.mu/) and pavio (/pɐ.ˈvi.u/) 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 80496, 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/. pavio is at rank #38,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɐ.ˈvi.u/.
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 80496, this pair ranks #1,314 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of palmo vs pavio
Shared letters: aop. Private to "palmo": lm. Private to "pavio": iv.
"palmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pavio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "palmo" and "pavio" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "palmo" vs "pavio" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "palmo" and "pavio" 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 "pavio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,314 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palmo" and "pavio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "papiro vs pavio". 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 #1,314 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.