salãovssalmãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,751
“salão” frequency rank
#15,681
“salmão” frequency rank
18432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salão salmão
Definition sala grande peixe da família dos Salmodídeos amarelo-alaranjado

Where the eye mixes salão and salmão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
salão
6 ch
salmão

Look-alike desk: salão vs salmão

A purely visual mix-up. salão (/sɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and salmão (/saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/) 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 18432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salão is recorded at frequency rank #2,751, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/. salmão is at rank #15,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced /saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/.

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 18432, this pair ranks #52,553 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salão vs salmão

Shared letters: alosã. Private to "salão": -. Private to "salmão": m.

"salão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "salmão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "salão" for "salmão" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/sɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/ versus /saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "salão" or "salmão" show up more?
"salão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,751 in our Portuguese list, against #15,681 for "salmão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "salão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "salmão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,553 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salão" and "salmão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saldar vs salmão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #52,553 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