Which to use
“palo” and “pó” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,711
- “palo” frequency rank
- #3,718
- “pó” frequency rank
- 39429
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palo | pó |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | incêndio, fogo: | parte da terra formada por pequenos grânulos |
Where the eye mixes palo and pó
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between palo and pó
A purely visual mix-up. palo (/ˈpɑ.lo̞/) and pó (/ˈpɔ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39429, 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/. pó is at rank #3,718, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔ/.
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 39429, this pair ranks #26,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of palo vs pó
Shared letters: p. Private to "palo": alo. Private to "pó": ó.
"palo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "pó" · 2 letters · shape CV
Known mistypes of this pair
- palo ← aplo · pallo · paol · plao · ppalo
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "palo" for "pó" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "palo" or "pó" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "palo" and "pó" 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 "pó" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palo" and "pó" 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 #26,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.