piãovsplanoConfusable pair

Quick tell: pião is a noun, plano is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pião” is a noun and “plano” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,727
“pião” frequency rank
#571
“plano” frequency rank
36298
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pião plano
Definition brinquedo que consiste em puxar uma corda enrolada a um objeto afunilado, geralmente de madeira ou plástico e com uma ponta de ferro, colocando-o em rotação no solo, mantendo-se erguido liso, sem maiores desníveis, nivelado

Letter map: pião vs plano

Shared letters muted; letters that set pião and plano apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. pião runs 4 letters (CVVV) against plano's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pião
5 ch
plano

Role in the sentence - pião and plano

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pião is anoun and planoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36298, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pião is recorded at frequency rank #35,727, classified as anoun. plano is at rank #571, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈplɐ.nu/.

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 36298, this pair ranks #30,553 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pião vs plano

Shared letters: op. Private to "pião": iã. Private to "plano": aln.

"pião" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "plano" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plano ← lpano · palno · planno · plaon · pllano · plnao · pplano

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pião" and "plano" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pião" is a noun and "plano" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pião" or "plano" show up more?
"plano" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #571 in our Portuguese list, against #35,727 for "pião". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pião" and "plano".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pião" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plano" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,553 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pião" and "plano" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pião vs pix". 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 #30,553 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