provspuréConfusable pair

Quick tell: pro is a preposition, puré is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pro” is a preposition and “puré” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,173
“pro” frequency rank
#41,198
“puré” frequency rank
42371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pro puré
Definition para iguaria feita de legumes, carnes ou frutas raladas transformadas num caldo grosso ou numa massa pastosa

Where the eye mixes pro and puré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
pro
4 ch
puré

Visual trap between pro and puré

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pro is /ˈprɔ/ ouvir^(fonte ?) while puré is /pu.ˈɾɛ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pro is recorded at frequency rank #1,173, classified as aprep, pronounced /ˈprɔ/ ouvir^(fonte ?). puré is at rank #41,198, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pu.ˈɾɛ/.

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 42371, this pair ranks #23,404 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pro vs puré

Shared letters: pr. Private to "pro": o. Private to "puré": .

"pro" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "puré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pro" for "puré" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pro" is a preposition and "puré" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pro" or "puré" show up more?
"pro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,173 in our Portuguese list, against #41,198 for "puré". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "pro" and "puré" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,404 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pro" and "puré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pale vs puré". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #23,404 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