Which to use
“palmo” and “pêlo” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,647
- “palmo” frequency rank
- #26,526
- “pêlo” frequency rank
- 68173
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palmo | pêlo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | medida igual à distância entre as extremidades dos dedos polegar e mínimo de uma mão aberta | vide pelo |
Where the eye mixes palmo and pêlo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses palmo with pêlo
A purely visual mix-up. palmo (/ˈpaɫ.mu/) and pêlo (/ˈpe.lu/) 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 68173, 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/. pêlo is at rank #26,526, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpe.lu/.
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 68173, this pair ranks #4,374 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of palmo vs pêlo
Shared letters: lop. Private to "palmo": am. Private to "pêlo": ê.
"palmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pêlo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- palmo ← aplmo · pallmo · palmmo · palom · pamlo · plamo · ppalmo
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "palmo" and "pêlo" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "palmo" or "pêlo" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "palmo" and "pêlo" 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 "pêlo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,374 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palmo" and "pêlo" 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 #4,374 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.