penhorvspunhoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,055
“penhor” frequency rank
#9,395
“punho” frequency rank
57450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature penhor punho
Definition objeto que se dá como garantia de um contrato ou dívida a parte proximal da mão que se articula com o antebraço

Where the eye mixes penhor and punho

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. penhor runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against punho's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
penhor
5 ch
punho

Look-alike desk: penhor vs punho

A purely visual mix-up. penhor (/pɨ.ˈɲoɾ/) and punho (/ˈpu.ɲu/) 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 57450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

penhor is recorded at frequency rank #48,055, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɨ.ˈɲoɾ/. punho is at rank #9,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpu.ɲu/.

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 57450, this pair ranks #9,327 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of penhor vs punho

Shared letters: hnop. Private to "penhor": er. Private to "punho": u.

"penhor" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "punho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • penhor ← epnhor · pehnor · penhhor · penhorr · penhro · pennhor · penohr · pnehor
  • punho ← pnuho · ppunho · puhno · punhho · punnho · punoh · upnho

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "penhor" and "punho" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɨ.ˈɲoɾ/ versus /ˈpu.ɲu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "penhor" or "punho" show up more?
"punho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,395 in our Portuguese list, against #48,055 for "penhor". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "penhor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "punho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,327 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "penhor" and "punho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "penhor vs pinho". 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 #9,327 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