paviovspódioConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#38,849
“pavio” frequency rank
#10,075
“pódio” frequency rank
48924
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pavio pódio
Definition cabo das velas, círios, candeias, mecha tribuna ou varanda em que os imperadores romanos e as grandes personagens assistiam aos espetáculos

Where the eye mixes pavio and pódio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pavio and pódio follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pavio
5 ch
pódio

Look-alike desk: pavio vs pódio

A purely visual mix-up. pavio (/pɐ.ˈvi.u/) and pódio (/ˈpɔ.dju/) 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 48924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pavio is recorded at frequency rank #38,849, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɐ.ˈvi.u/. pódio is at rank #10,075, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔ.dju/.

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 48924, this pair ranks #16,191 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pavio vs pódio

Shared letters: iop. Private to "pavio": av. Private to "pódio": dó.

"pavio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "pódio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pavio ← apvio · paivo · pavoi · pavvio · ppavio · pvaio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pavio" for "pódio" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɐ.ˈvi.u/ versus /ˈpɔ.dju/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pavio" or "pódio" show up more?
"pódio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,075 in our Portuguese list, against #38,849 for "pavio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pavio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pódio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,191 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pavio" and "pódio" 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 #16,191 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