plantaçãovsplantãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,708
“plantação” frequency rank
#8,939
“plantão” frequency rank
20647
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature plantação plantão
Definition ação ou resultado de plantar; plantio serviço policial, distribuído diariamente a um soldado, dentro da própria caserna, companhia ou bataria

Where the eye mixes plantação and plantão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. plantação runs 9 letters (CCVCCVCVV) against plantão's 7 (CCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
plantação
7 ch
plantão

Visual trap between plantação and plantão

A purely visual mix-up. plantação (/plɐ̃.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20647, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

plantação is recorded at frequency rank #11,708, classified as anoun, pronounced /plɐ̃.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. 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 20647, this pair ranks #49,800 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of plantação vs plantão

Shared letters: alnoptã. Private to "plantação": ç. Private to "plantão": -.

"plantação" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVV  ·  "plantão" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "plantação" and "plantão" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/plɐ̃.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /plɐ̃.ˈtɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "plantação" or "plantão" show up more?
"plantão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,939 in our Portuguese list, against #11,708 for "plantação". 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 "plantação" 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 #49,800 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "plantação" and "plantão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plantão vs platô". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,800 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