shadowvssuadoTell them apart

Quick tell: shadow is a noun, suado is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shadow” is a noun and “suado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,398
“shadow” frequency rank
#23,137
“suado” frequency rank
39535
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shadow suado
Definition sombra; obscuridade que está suando

Where the eye mixes shadow and suado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
shadow
5 ch
suado

Why the eye confuses shadow with suado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shadow is /ˈʃædəʊ/ while suado is /ˈswa.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shadow is recorded at frequency rank #16,398, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃædəʊ/. suado is at rank #23,137, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈswa.du/.

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 39535, this pair ranks #26,688 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shadow vs suado

Shared letters: ados. Private to "shadow": hw. Private to "suado": u.

"shadow" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "suado" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shadowhsadow · sahdow · shaddow · shadoww · shadwo · shaodw · shdaow · shhadow
  • suadosaudo · ssuado · suaddo · suaod · sudao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shadow" and "suado" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shadow" is a noun and "suado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "shadow" vs "suado" - which ranks higher?
"shadow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,398 in our Portuguese list, against #23,137 for "suado". 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 "shadow" and "suado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shadow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,688 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shadow" and "suado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suado vs sueño". 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 #26,688 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