Which to use
“pavão” and “pavio” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,519
- “pavão” frequency rank
- #38,849
- “pavio” frequency rank
- 58368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavão | pavio |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pendão, flor masculina do milho | cabo das velas, círios, candeias, mecha |
Where the eye mixes pavão and pavio
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pavão and pavio follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: pavão vs pavio
A purely visual mix-up. pavão (/pa.'boŋ/) and pavio (/pɐ.ˈvi.u/) 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 a single letter - ã in “pavão” becomes i in “pavio”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pavão is recorded at frequency rank #19,519, classified as anoun, pronounced /pa.'boŋ/. pavio is at rank #38,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɐ.ˈvi.u/.
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 58368, this pair ranks #8,783 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pavão vs pavio
Shared letters: aopv. Private to "pavão": ã. Private to "pavio": i.
"pavão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "pavio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pavio ← apvio · paivo · pavoi · pavvio · ppavio · pvaio
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pavão" and "pavio" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pavão" or "pavio"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pavão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pavio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,783 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavão" and "pavio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "papiro vs pavio". 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 #8,783 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.