salãovssançãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,751
“salão” frequency rank
#16,876
“sanção” frequency rank
19627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salão sanção
Definition sala grande ato de sancionar uma lei; aprovação, pelo presidente, de uma lei votada no legislativo

Where the eye mixes salão and sanção

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. salão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against sanção's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
salão
6 ch
sanção

Visual trap between salão and sanção

A purely visual mix-up. salão (/sɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and sanção (/sɐ̃.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 19627, 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/. sanção is at rank #16,876, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɐ̃.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 19627, this pair ranks #51,067 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salão vs sanção

Shared letters: aosã. Private to "salão": l. Private to "sanção": nç.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "salão" and "sanção" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/ versus /sɐ̃.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "salão" vs "sanção" - which ranks higher?
"salão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,751 in our Portuguese list, against #16,876 for "sanção". 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 "salão" and "sanção" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "salão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sanção" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,067 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salão" and "sanção" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sacro vs sanção". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #51,067 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