pelevspuloWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,654
“pele” frequency rank
#16,593
“pulo” frequency rank
18247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pele pulo
Definition tecido que reveste externamente o corpo humano e o de muitos animais; couro ato de pular; salto pequeno

Where the eye mixes pele and pulo

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

4 ch
pele
4 ch
pulo

Visual trap between pele and pulo

A purely visual mix-up. pele (/ˈpɛ.li/) and pulo (/ˈpu.lu/) 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 18247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pele is recorded at frequency rank #1,654, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛ.li/. pulo is at rank #16,593, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpu.lu/.

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 18247, this pair ranks #52,788 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pele vs pulo

Shared letters: lp. Private to "pele": e. Private to "pulo": ou.

"pele" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pulo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peleeple · peel · pelle · plee · ppele
  • pulopluo · ppulo · pullo · puol · uplo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pele" for "pulo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɛ.li/ versus /ˈpu.lu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pele" or "pulo" show up more?
"pele" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,654 in our Portuguese list, against #16,593 for "pulo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pulo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,788 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pele" and "pulo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pluto vs pulo". 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 #52,788 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