signovssiloConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,792
“signo” frequency rank
#36,653
“silo” frequency rank
47445
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature signo silo
Definition sinal, marca armazém subterrâneo para cereais, ou outros alimentos

Where the eye mixes signo and silo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. signo runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against silo's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
signo
4 ch
silo

Look-alike desk: signo vs silo

A purely visual mix-up. signo (/ˈsi.ɡnu/) and silo (/ˈsi.lu/) 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 47445, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

signo is recorded at frequency rank #10,792, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsi.ɡnu/. silo is at rank #36,653, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsi.lu/.

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 47445, this pair ranks #17,804 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of signo vs silo

Shared letters: ios. Private to "signo": gn. Private to "silo": l.

"signo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "silo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • signo ← isgno · sgino · siggno · signno · sigon · singo · ssigno
  • silo ← islo · sillo · siol · slio · ssilo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "signo" and "silo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsi.ɡnu/ versus /ˈsi.lu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "signo" vs "silo" - which ranks higher?
"signo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,792 in our Portuguese list, against #36,653 for "silo". 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 "signo" and "silo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "signo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "silo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,804 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "signo" and "silo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "silo vs sire". 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 #17,804 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