pilãovsporãoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,522
“pilão” frequency rank
#13,812
“porão” frequency rank
59334
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pilão porão
Definition mão do almofariz parte de um imóvel abaixo do primeiro piso

Where the eye mixes pilão and porão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pilão and porão follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pilão
5 ch
porão

Look-alike desk: pilão vs porão

A purely visual mix-up. pilão (/pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and porão (/pu.ˈɾɐ̃w̃/) 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 59334, 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/. porão is at rank #13,812, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pu.ˈɾɐ̃w̃/.

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 59334, this pair ranks #8,238 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pilão vs porão

Shared letters: opã. Private to "pilão": il. Private to "porão": r.

"pilão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "porão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pilão" and "porão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/ versus /pu.ˈɾɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pilão" or "porão"?
"porão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,812 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

Eye-level mix-up between "pilão" and "porão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pilão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "porão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,238 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pilão" and "porão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs platô". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #8,238 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