Which to use
“pulso” and “puxão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,944
- “pulso” frequency rank
- #39,818
- “puxão” frequency rank
- 48762
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pulso | puxão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | parte do antebraço junto à mão | puxada forte e repentina |
Where the eye mixes pulso and puxão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pulso (CVCCV) and puxão (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between pulso and puxão
A purely visual mix-up. pulso (/ˈpuɫ.su/) and puxão (/pu.ˈʃɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pulso is recorded at frequency rank #8,944, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpuɫ.su/. puxão is at rank #39,818, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pu.ˈʃɐ̃w̃/.
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 48762, this pair ranks #16,386 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pulso vs puxão
Shared letters: opu. Private to "pulso": ls. Private to "puxão": xã.
"pulso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "puxão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pulso ← pluso · ppulso · pullso · pulos · pulsso · puslo · uplso
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pulso" for "puxão" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pulso" or "puxão" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pulso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puxão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,386 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pulso" and "puxão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs puxão". 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 #16,386 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.