plantavsplantãoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,100
“planta” frequency rank
#8,939
“plantão” frequency rank
12039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planta plantão
Definition qualquer ser vivo do reino dos vegetais; deve ser pluricelular e apresentar clorofila, tecidos organizados e parede celular serviço policial, distribuído diariamente a um soldado, dentro da própria caserna, companhia ou bataria

Where the eye mixes planta and plantão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. planta runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against plantão's 7 (CCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
planta
7 ch
plantão

Look-alike desk: planta vs plantão

A purely visual mix-up. planta (/ˈplɐ̃.tɐ/) and plantão (/plɐ̃.ˈtɐ̃w̃/) 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 12039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

planta is recorded at frequency rank #3,100, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈplɐ̃.tɐ/. plantão is at rank #8,939, tagged as anoun, pronounced /plɐ̃.ˈtɐ̃w̃/.

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 12039, this pair ranks #60,672 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of planta vs plantão

Shared letters: alnpt. Private to "planta": -. Private to "plantão": oã.

"planta" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "plantão" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planta ← lpanta · palnta · planat · plannta · plantta · platna · pllanta · plnata

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "planta" and "plantão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈplɐ̃.tɐ/ versus /plɐ̃.ˈtɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "planta" or "plantão" show up more?
"planta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,100 in our Portuguese list, against #8,939 for "plantão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "planta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "plantão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,672 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planta" and "plantão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plantão 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 #60,672 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