polacovsporcoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#29,088
“polaco” frequency rank
#5,878
“porco” frequency rank
34966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature polaco porco
Definition relativo ou pertencente à Polônia que é muito sujo, imundo

Where the eye mixes polaco and porco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. polaco runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against porco's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
polaco
5 ch
porco

Why the eye confuses polaco with porco

A purely visual mix-up. polaco (/po.la."ku/) and porco (/ˈpoɾ.ku/) 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 34966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

polaco is recorded at frequency rank #29,088, classified as anadj, pronounced /po.la."ku/. porco is at rank #5,878, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpoɾ.ku/.

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 34966, this pair ranks #32,177 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of polaco vs porco

Shared letters: cop. Private to "polaco": al. Private to "porco": r.

"polaco" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "porco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • polaco ← oplaco · ploaco · poalco · polacco · polaoc · polcao · pollaco · ppolaco
  • porco ← oprco · pocro · porcco · poroc · porrco · pporco · proco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "polaco" for "porco" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/po.la."ku/ versus /ˈpoɾ.ku/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "polaco" vs "porco" - which ranks higher?
"porco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,878 in our Portuguese list, against #29,088 for "polaco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "polaco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "porco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,177 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "polaco" and "porco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "polaco vs Poland". 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 #32,177 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