sem
/sɐ̃j̃/
The verdict
“sem” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #69) as a preposition. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #69
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 1,185
- “S” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - indicativa de carência ou ausência
Corpus desk
Index PT-sem · sem · Portuguese
sem · rank #69 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #69
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,185
- PHOTO-FINISH quem
Nearest frequency peer: quem (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “sem”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- todos
todos
99,934 corpus weight
- quem
quem
99,933 corpus weight
- sem
sem
99,932 corpus weight
- agora
agora
99,931 corpus weight
- entre
entre
99,930 corpus weight
- era
era
99,929 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sem” sits against the nearest ranked Portuguese headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | sem |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | /sɐ̃j̃/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #69 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Onde “sem” fica na frequência do português
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for sem is neighbouring look-alikes ("só", "si", …), not just typos; it is apreposition pronounced /sɐ̃j̃/. Frequency #69 among 1,185 “S” headwords. Gloss: "indicativa de carência ou ausência".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for sem, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "só", "si", "su", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct Portuguese form is sem, spelled S-E-M.
Definition
- 1indicativa de carência ou ausência
This word in other languages
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
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Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sem", not the corpus desk frequency band.
What to do next
You've looked up "sem". Here's where to go from here.
- "sem" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "só". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #69 among Portuguese headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more Portuguese words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.