papovspoçoTell them apart

Which to use

“papo” and “poço” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,897
“papo” frequency rank
#5,129
“poço” frequency rank
8026
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature papo poço
Definition dilatação existente no esôfago da maioria das aves buraco fundo, geralmente circular, cavado no chão, com o objetivo de encontrar água

Where the eye mixes papo and poço

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
papo
4 ch
poço

Look-alike desk: papo vs poço

A purely visual mix-up. papo (/ˈpa.pu/) and poço (/ˈpo.su/) 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 8026, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

papo is recorded at frequency rank #2,897, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpa.pu/. poço is at rank #5,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpo.su/.

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 8026, this pair ranks #65,907 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of papo vs poço

Shared letters: op. Private to "papo": a. Private to "poço": ç.

"papo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "poço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • papoappo · paop · pappo · ppao · ppapo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "papo" for "poço" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpa.pu/ versus /ˈpo.su/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "papo" or "poço" show up more?
"papo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,897 in our Portuguese list, against #5,129 for "poço". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "papo" and "poço" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "papo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,907 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "papo" and "poço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "papiro vs papo". 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 #65,907 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list