vácuo vs vão, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#9,280
“vácuo” frequency rank: #253
“vão” frequency rank: 9533
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	vácuo	vão
Definition	vazio	vazio

Where the eye mixes vácuo and vão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. vácuo runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against vão's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch

vácuo

3 ch

vão

Visual trap between vácuo and vão

A purely visual mix-up. vácuo (/ˈva.kwu/) and vão (/ˈvɐ̃w̃/ [ˈvɐ̃ʊ̯̃]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vácuo is recorded at frequency rank #9,280, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈva.kwu/. vão is at rank #253, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈvɐ̃w̃/ [ˈvɐ̃ʊ̯̃].

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 9533, this pair ranks #63,859 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vácuo vs vão

Shared letters: ov. Private to "vácuo": cuá. Private to "vão": ã.

"vácuo" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "vão" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vácuo" and "vão" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (/ˈva.kwu/ versus /ˈvɐ̃w̃/ [ˈvɐ̃ʊ̯̃]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vácuo" or "vão" show up more?

"vão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #253 in our Portuguese list, against #9,280 for "vácuo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "vácuo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "vão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #63,859 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"vácuo" and "vão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vão vs velo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,859 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.