salmãovssalsaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,681
“salmão” frequency rank
#15,452
“salsa” frequency rank
31133
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salmão salsa
Definition peixe da família dos Salmodídeos amarelo-alaranjado água do mar, água salobre

Where the eye mixes salmão and salsa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. salmão runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against salsa's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
salmão
5 ch
salsa

Why the eye confuses salmão with salsa

A purely visual mix-up. salmão (/saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/) and salsa (/ˈsaw.sa/) 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 31133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salmão is recorded at frequency rank #15,681, classified as anoun, pronounced /saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/. salsa is at rank #15,452, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsaw.sa/.

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 31133, this pair ranks #37,042 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salmão vs salsa

Shared letters: als. Private to "salmão": moã. Private to "salsa": -.

"salmão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "salsa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • salsa ← aslsa · salas · sallsa · salssa · sasla · slasa · ssalsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "salmão" and "salsa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/ versus /ˈsaw.sa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "salmão" or "salsa" show up more?
"salsa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,452 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "salmão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "salsa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,042 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salmão" and "salsa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saba vs salsa". 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 #37,042 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