Which to use
“palo” and “pata” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,711
- “palo” frequency rank
- #15,417
- “pata” frequency rank
- 51128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palo | pata |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | incêndio, fogo: | a fêmea do pato |
Where the eye mixes palo and pata
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. palo and pata follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: palo vs pata
A purely visual mix-up. palo (/ˈpɑ.lo̞/) and pata (/ˈpa.tɐ/) 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 51128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
palo is recorded at frequency rank #35,711, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɑ.lo̞/. pata is at rank #15,417, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpa.tɐ/.
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 51128, this pair ranks #13,869 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of palo vs pata
Shared letters: ap. Private to "palo": lo. Private to "pata": t.
"palo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "pata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "palo" and "pata" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "palo" or "pata"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "palo" and "pata" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "palo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #13,869 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palo" and "pata" 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 #13,869 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.