pêlovspoloTell them apart

Which to use

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

#26,526
“pêlo” frequency rank
#7,199
“polo” frequency rank
33725
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pêlo polo
Definition vide pelo cada uma das extremidades do eixo de uma esfera

Letter map: pêlo vs polo

Shared letters muted; letters that set pêlo and polo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
pêlo
4 ch
polo

Spelling & dictionary notes on pêlo vs polo

pêlo and polo are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - ê in “pêlo” becomes o in “polo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pêlo is recorded at frequency rank #26,526, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpe.lu/. polo is at rank #7,199, tagged as anoun.

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 33725, this pair ranks #33,705 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pêlo vs polo

Shared letters: lop. Private to "pêlo": ê. Private to "polo": -.

"pêlo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "polo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • polooplo · ploo · pollo · ppolo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pêlo" and "polo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - ê in “pêlo” becomes o in “polo”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "pêlo" or "polo"?
"polo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,199 in our Portuguese list, against #26,526 for "pêlo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "pêlo" vs "polo" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pêlo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "polo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,705 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pêlo" and "polo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pêlo vs pilão". 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 #33,705 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