pousavspousoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,092
“pousa” frequency rank
#10,774
“pouso” frequency rank
39866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pousa pouso
Definition ato de pousar ação de pousar

Letter map: pousa vs pouso

Shared letters muted; letters that set pousa and pouso apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. pousa and pouso follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pousa
5 ch
pouso

Spelling & dictionary notes on pousa vs pouso

pousa and pouso are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “pousa” becomes o in “pouso”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pousa is recorded at frequency rank #29,092, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpo.zɐ/. pouso is at rank #10,774, tagged as anoun.

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 39866, this pair ranks #26,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pousa vs pouso

Shared letters: opsu. Private to "pousa": a. Private to "pouso": -.

"pousa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "pouso" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pousa ← opusa · posua · pouas · poussa · ppousa · puosa
  • pouso ← opuso · posuo · pouos · pousso · ppouso · puoso

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pousa" and "pouso" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “pousa” becomes o in “pouso”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "pousa" vs "pouso" - which ranks higher?
"pouso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,774 in our Portuguese list, against #29,092 for "pousa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pousa" and "pouso".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pousa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pouso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pousa" and "pouso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pola vs pousa". 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 #26,326 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