Which to use
“pilha” and “piolho” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,233
- “pilha” frequency rank
- #32,316
- “piolho” frequency rank
- 41549
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pilha | piolho |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | montão de coisas umas sobre as outras | inseto parasita que suga o sangue de vertebrados e lhes transmite várias doenças |
Where the eye mixes pilha and piolho
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pilha runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against piolho's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pilha and piolho
A purely visual mix-up. pilha (/ˈpi.ʎɐ/) and piolho (/ˈpjo.ʎu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pilha is recorded at frequency rank #9,233, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpi.ʎɐ/. piolho is at rank #32,316, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpjo.ʎu/.
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 41549, this pair ranks #24,363 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pilha vs piolho
Shared letters: hilp. Private to "pilha": a. Private to "piolho": o.
"pilha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "piolho" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pilha" and "piolho" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pilha" vs "piolho" - which ranks higher?
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 "pilha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piolho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #24,363 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pilha" and "piolho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs piolho". 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 #24,363 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.