pulovspulsoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,593
“pulo” frequency rank
#8,944
“pulso” frequency rank
25537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pulo pulso
Definition ato de pular; salto pequeno parte do antebraço junto à mão

Where the eye mixes pulo and pulso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pulo
5 ch
pulso

Look-alike desk: pulo vs pulso

A purely visual mix-up. pulo (/ˈpu.lu/) and pulso (/ˈpuɫ.su/) 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 25537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pulo is recorded at frequency rank #16,593, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpu.lu/. pulso is at rank #8,944, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpuɫ.su/.

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 25537, this pair ranks #43,762 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pulo vs pulso

Shared letters: lopu. Private to "pulo": -. Private to "pulso": s.

"pulo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pulso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pulopluo · ppulo · pullo · puol · uplo
  • pulsopluso · ppulso · pullso · pulos · pulsso · puslo · uplso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pulo" for "pulso" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpu.lu/ versus /ˈpuɫ.su/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pulo" vs "pulso" - which ranks higher?
"pulso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,944 in our Portuguese list, against #16,593 for "pulo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pulo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pulso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,762 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pulo" and "pulso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pluto vs pulo". 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 #43,762 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