podervspudorTell them apart

Which to use

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

#260
“poder” frequency rank
#24,438
“pudor” frequency rank
24698
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poder pudor
Definition autoridade ou domínio sentimento de vergonha, timidez, mal-estar produzido por tudo o que é contrário à modéstia

Where the eye mixes poder and pudor

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
poder
5 ch
pudor

Visual trap between poder and pudor

A purely visual mix-up. poder (/pu.ˈdeɾ/) and pudor (/pu.ˈdoɾ/) 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 24698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poder is recorded at frequency rank #260, classified as anoun, pronounced /pu.ˈdeɾ/. pudor is at rank #24,438, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pu.ˈdoɾ/.

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 24698, this pair ranks #44,853 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poder vs pudor

Shared letters: dopr. Private to "poder": e. Private to "pudor": u.

"poder" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pudor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poderopder · pdoer · podder · poderr · poedr · ppoder
  • pudorpduor · ppudor · puddor · pudorr · pudro · puodr · updor

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "poder" and "pudor" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pu.ˈdeɾ/ versus /pu.ˈdoɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "poder" or "pudor" show up more?
"poder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #260 in our Portuguese list, against #24,438 for "pudor". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "poder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pudor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,853 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poder" and "pudor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pudor vs puxo". 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 #44,853 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