sacrovssalvoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,664
“sacro” frequency rank
#4,020
“salvo” frequency rank
46684
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sacro salvo
Definition sagrado, qualificativo dado a aquilo que tem relação com o divino, a aquilo que se tem em mui alta estima livre de perigo, seguro

Where the eye mixes sacro and salvo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sacro and salvo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
sacro
5 ch
salvo

Visual trap between sacro and salvo

A purely visual mix-up. sacro (/ˈsa.kɾu/) and salvo (/ˈsaɫ.vu/) 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 46684, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sacro is recorded at frequency rank #42,664, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsa.kɾu/. salvo is at rank #4,020, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsaɫ.vu/.

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 46684, this pair ranks #18,628 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sacro vs salvo

Shared letters: aos. Private to "sacro": cr. Private to "salvo": lv.

"sacro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "salvo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sacro ← ascro · saccro · sacor · sacrro · sarco · scaro · ssacro
  • salvo ← aslvo · sallvo · salov · salvvo · savlo · slavo · ssalvo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sacro" and "salvo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsa.kɾu/ versus /ˈsaɫ.vu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sacro" or "salvo" show up more?
"salvo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,020 in our Portuguese list, against #42,664 for "sacro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "sacro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "salvo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,628 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sacro" and "salvo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sacred vs sacro". 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 #18,628 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