s

symbol

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“s” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #511) as a symbol. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#511
frequency rank, Portuguese
1,185
“S” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - símbolo de segundo

Corpus desk

Index PT-s · s · Portuguese

s · rank #511 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #511
  • LEN-SHORT 1 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,185
  • PHOTO-FINISH principal

Nearest frequency peer: principal (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “s”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “s” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

s vs se
50% similar
s vs só
50% similar
s vs si
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for s
PropertyValue
Headwords
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechSymbol
Letters1
Frequency rank#511
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “s”

Da esquerda para a direita: o pouco que carrega a fala diária, depois a cauda longa quase invisível.scai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

O eixo é logarítmico: cada tick marca cerca de dez vezes menos frequência. Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “principal” (#510), “setembro” (#512), “perto” (#509). Entre 1,185 lemas com “S”, “s” fica em #511. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for s is neighbouring look-alikes ("se", "só", …), not just typos; it is asymbol. Frequency #511 among 1,185 “S” headwords. Gloss: "símbolo de segundo".

Zero misspellings are on record for s in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "se", "só", "si", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Portuguese form is s, spelled S.

Definition

  1. 1
    símbolo de segundo

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how s appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. 10s equivale a dez segundos

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 "s"?
"s" is spelled S.
What does "s" mean?
As a symbol, "s" means: símbolo de segundo
What words are commonly confused with "s"?
"s" is commonly confused with "se", "só", "si". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "s" come from?
"s" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list