pilãovspoloWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,522
“pilão” frequency rank
#7,199
“polo” frequency rank
52721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pilão polo
Definition mão do almofariz cada uma das extremidades do eixo de uma esfera

Letter map: pilão vs polo

Shared letters muted; letters that set pilão and polo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. pilão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against polo's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pilão
4 ch
polo

Corpus notes: pilão and polo

pilão and polo are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52721, 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/. polo is at rank #7,199, tagged as anoun.

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 52721, this pair ranks #12,545 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pilão vs polo

Shared letters: lop. Private to "pilão": iã. Private to "polo": -.

"pilão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "polo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • polo ← oplo · ploo · pollo · ppolo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pilão" and "polo" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "pilão" vs "polo" - which ranks higher?
"polo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,199 in our Portuguese list, against #45,522 for "pilão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "pilão" vs "polo" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pilão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "polo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,545 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pilão" and "polo" 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 #12,545 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