perdãovsportãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,278
“perdão” frequency rank
#5,450
“portão” frequency rank
8728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perdão portão
Definition fim de uma exigência porta grande

Where the eye mixes perdão and portão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
perdão
6 ch
portão

Look-alike desk: perdão vs portão

A purely visual mix-up. perdão (/pɨɾ.ˈdɐ̃w̃/) and portão (/puɾ.ˈtɐ̃w̃/) 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 8728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perdão is recorded at frequency rank #3,278, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɨɾ.ˈdɐ̃w̃/. portão is at rank #5,450, tagged as anoun, pronounced /puɾ.ˈtɐ̃w̃/.

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 8728, this pair ranks #64,936 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perdão vs portão

Shared letters: oprã. Private to "perdão": de. Private to "portão": t.

"perdão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "portão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "perdão" and "portão" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɨɾ.ˈdɐ̃w̃/ versus /puɾ.ˈtɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "perdão" or "portão"?
"perdão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,278 in our Portuguese list, against #5,450 for "portão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perdão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "portão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,936 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perdão" and "portão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedrão vs perdão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #64,936 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