saborvssacoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,595
“sabor” frequency rank
#2,166
“saco” frequency rank
6761
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sabor saco
Definition sensação gustativa espécie de bolsa de plástico, papel, couro ou pano

Where the eye mixes sabor and saco

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

5 ch
sabor
4 ch
saco

Why the eye confuses sabor with saco

A purely visual mix-up. sabor (/sɐ.ˈboɾ/) and saco (/ˈsa.ku/) 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 6761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sabor is recorded at frequency rank #4,595, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɐ.ˈboɾ/. saco is at rank #2,166, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsa.ku/.

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 6761, this pair ranks #67,589 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sabor vs saco

Shared letters: aos. Private to "sabor": br. Private to "saco": c.

"sabor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "saco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saborasbor · sabbor · saborr · sabro · saobr · sbaor · ssabor
  • sacosacco · saoc · scao · ssaco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sabor" and "saco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɐ.ˈboɾ/ versus /ˈsa.ku/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sabor" or "saco" show up more?
"saco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,166 in our Portuguese list, against #4,595 for "sabor". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sabor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "saco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,589 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sabor" and "saco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saco vs Sau". 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 #67,589 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