pilãovspintoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,522
“pilão” frequency rank
#2,847
“pinto” frequency rank
48369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pilão pinto
Definition mão do almofariz filhote de galinha

Where the eye mixes pilão and pinto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pilão (CVCVV) and pinto (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
pilão
5 ch
pinto

Look-alike desk: pilão vs pinto

A purely visual mix-up. pilão (/pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and pinto (/ˈpĩ.tu/) 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 48369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pilão is recorded at frequency rank #45,522, classified as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/. pinto is at rank #2,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpĩ.tu/.

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 48369, this pair ranks #16,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pilão vs pinto

Shared letters: iop. Private to "pilão": lã. Private to "pinto": nt.

"pilão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "pinto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pinto ← ipnto · pinnto · pinot · pintto · pitno · pnito · ppinto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pilão" for "pinto" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/ versus /ˈpĩ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pilão" or "pinto" show up more?
"pinto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,847 in our Portuguese list, against #45,522 for "pilão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pilão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pinto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,812 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pilão" and "pinto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs platô". 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 #16,812 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