Which to use
“pão” and “povo” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,942
- “pão” frequency rank
- #432
- “povo” frequency rank
- 2374
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pão | povo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | alimento à base de farinha amassada, fermentada e assada em forno | conjunto dos habitantes de um país, de uma cidade, de uma localidade, etc |
Where the eye mixes pão and povo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pão runs 3 letters (CVV) against povo's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pão and povo
A purely visual mix-up. pão (/ˈpɐ̃w̃/) and povo (/ˈpo.vu/) 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 2374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pão is recorded at frequency rank #1,942, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɐ̃w̃/. povo is at rank #432, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpo.vu/.
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 2374, this pair ranks #73,036 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pão vs povo
Shared letters: op. Private to "pão": ã. Private to "povo": v.
"pão" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "povo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- povo ← opvo · poov · povvo · ppovo · pvoo
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pão" for "povo" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pão" or "povo" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pão" and "povo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "povo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #73,036 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pão" and "povo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pão vs pix". 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 #73,036 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.