porãvsporcoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,327
“porã” frequency rank
#5,878
“porco” frequency rank
34205
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature porã porco
Definition bonito que é muito sujo, imundo

Where the eye mixes porã and porco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. porã runs 4 letters (CVCV) against porco's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
porã
5 ch
porco

Why the eye confuses porã with porco

A purely visual mix-up. porã (/põ.ˈɾã/) 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 34205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

porã is recorded at frequency rank #28,327, classified as anadj, pronounced /põ.ˈɾã/. 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 34205, this pair ranks #33,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of porã vs porco

Shared letters: opr. Private to "porã": ã. Private to "porco": c.

"porã" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "porco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • porco ← oprco · pocro · porcco · poroc · porrco · pporco · proco

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "porã" and "porco" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/põ.ˈɾã/ versus /ˈpoɾ.ku/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "porã" or "porco"?
"porco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,878 in our Portuguese list, against #28,327 for "porã". 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 "porã" 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 #33,127 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "porã" and "porco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pomo vs porã". 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 #33,127 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