pasmovspassosConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#42,145
“pasmo” frequency rank
#2,338
“passos” frequency rank
44483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasmo passos
Definition espantado plural de passo

Where the eye mixes pasmo and passos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pasmo
6 ch
passos

Look-alike desk: pasmo vs passos

A purely visual mix-up. pasmo (/ˈpaʒ.mu/) and passos (/'pɐ.sʊs/) 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 44483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasmo is recorded at frequency rank #42,145, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpaʒ.mu/. passos is at rank #2,338, tagged as anadj, pronounced /'pɐ.sʊs/.

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 44483, this pair ranks #20,996 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pasmo vs passos

Shared letters: aops. Private to "pasmo": m. Private to "passos": -.

"pasmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "passos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasmoapsmo · pamso · pasmmo · pasom · passmo · ppasmo · psamo
  • passosapssos · pasos · pasoss · passoss · passso · ppassos · psasos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pasmo" for "passos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpaʒ.mu/ versus /'pɐ.sʊs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pasmo" vs "passos" - which ranks higher?
"passos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,338 in our Portuguese list, against #42,145 for "pasmo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pasmo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "passos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,996 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasmo" and "passos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasmo vs pomo". 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 #20,996 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