Which to use
“puto” is an adjective and “puxão” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,967
- “puto” frequency rank
- #39,818
- “puxão” frequency rank
- 47785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puto | puxão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | corrompido; devasso; dissoluto | puxada forte e repentina |
Where the eye mixes puto and puxão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. puto runs 4 letters (CVCV) against puxão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses puto with puxão
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: puto is /ˈpu.tu/ while puxão is /pu.ˈʃɐ̃w̃/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puto is recorded at frequency rank #7,967, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpu.tu/. 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 47785, this pair ranks #17,440 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of puto vs puxão
Shared letters: opu. Private to "puto": t. Private to "puxão": xã.
"puto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "puxão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- puto ← pputo · ptuo · puot · putto · upto
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "puto" for "puxão" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "puto" 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 "puto" 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 #17,440 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puto" 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 #17,440 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.