espião
The verdict
“espião” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #13,286 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,286
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - pessoa empregada por um governo ou companhia para obter informações secretas sobre outro governo ou companhia
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | espião |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #13,286 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “espião” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for espião is 6 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #13,286 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for espião, with forms such as "epsião", "esipão", and "espioã". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "estilo", "espiga", "espiar", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct Portuguese form is espião, spelled E-S-P-I-Ã-O.
Definition
- 1pessoa empregada por um governo ou companhia para obter informações secretas sobre outro governo ou companhia
- 2pessoa que observa, vigia alguém em secreto
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epsião,esipão,espioã,esppião,espãio,esspião,sepião
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of espião - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "espião"?
What does "espião" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "espião"?
What language does "espião" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “espião”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is E-S-P-I-Ã-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “estilo” - see the side-by-side comparison. espião vs estilo
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.