sex
/sɛks/
The verdict
“sex” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #7,835) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #7,835
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 2,603
- “S” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - sexo, gênero
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 | sex |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɛks/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #7,835 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sex” sits in Portuguese frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for sex is neighbouring look-alikes ("só", "si", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /sɛks/. Frequency #7,835 among 2,603 “S” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
sex doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "só", "si", "su", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct Portuguese form is sex, spelled S-E-X.
Definition
- 1sexo, gênero
- 2genitália, órgão sexual (masculino ou feminino)
- 3ato sexual, cópula
Synonyms
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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Using “sex”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is S-E-X - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɛks/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “só” - see the side-by-side comparison. sex vs só
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Words at a similar Portuguese frequency
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.