veladovsvilãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,169
“velado” frequency rank
#7,232
“vilão” frequency rank
32401
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature velado vilão
Definition coberto com véu relativo ou pertencente à vila

Where the eye mixes velado and vilão

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

6 ch
velado
5 ch
vilão

Look-alike desk: velado vs vilão

A purely visual mix-up. velado (/vɨ.ˈla.du/) and vilão (/bi.'laŋ/, /bi.'la.o/ ou /bi.'law/) 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 32401, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

velado is recorded at frequency rank #25,169, classified as anadj, pronounced /vɨ.ˈla.du/. vilão is at rank #7,232, tagged as anadj, pronounced /bi.'laŋ/, /bi.'la.o/ ou /bi.'law/.

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 32401, this pair ranks #35,426 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of velado vs vilão

Shared letters: lov. Private to "velado": ade. Private to "vilão": iã.

"velado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "vilão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • velado ← evlado · vealdo · veladdo · velaod · veldao · vellado · vleado · vvelado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "velado" and "vilão" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/vɨ.ˈla.du/ versus /bi.'laŋ/, /bi.'la.o/ ou /bi.'law/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "velado" vs "vilão" - which ranks higher?
"vilão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,232 in our Portuguese list, against #25,169 for "velado". 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 "velado" and "vilão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "velado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vilão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,426 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "velado" and "vilão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "velado vs velar". 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 #35,426 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