Which to use
“pente” and “ponte” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,363
- “pente” frequency rank
- #1,859
- “ponte” frequency rank
- 18222
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pente | ponte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | objeto usado para pentear o cabelo | construção que liga dois locais separados por superfície líquida ou por depressão |
Where the eye mixes pente and ponte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pente and ponte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: pente vs ponte
A purely visual mix-up. pente (/ˈpẽ.tɨ/) and ponte (/ˈpõw.tʃi/) 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 - e in “pente” becomes o in “ponte”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18222, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pente is recorded at frequency rank #16,363, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpẽ.tɨ/. ponte is at rank #1,859, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpõw.tʃi/.
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 18222, this pair ranks #52,819 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pente vs ponte
Shared letters: enpt. Private to "pente": -. Private to "ponte": o.
"pente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "ponte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pente" and "ponte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pente" or "ponte" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "pente" and "ponte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ponte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #52,819 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pente" and "ponte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedinte vs pente". 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 #52,819 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.