pulovspunhoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,593
“pulo” frequency rank
#9,395
“punho” frequency rank
25988
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pulo punho
Definition ato de pular; salto pequeno a parte proximal da mão que se articula com o antebraço

Where the eye mixes pulo and punho

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pulo
5 ch
punho

Visual trap between pulo and punho

A purely visual mix-up. pulo (/ˈpu.lu/) and punho (/ˈpu.ɲu/) 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 25988, 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/. punho is at rank #9,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpu.ɲu/.

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 25988, this pair ranks #43,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pulo vs punho

Shared letters: opu. Private to "pulo": l. Private to "punho": hn.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pulopluo · ppulo · pullo · puol · uplo
  • punhopnuho · ppunho · puhno · punhho · punnho · punoh · upnho

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pulo" for "punho" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpu.lu/ versus /ˈpu.ɲu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pulo" or "punho"?
"punho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,395 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.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pulo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "punho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pulo" and "punho" 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 #43,237 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