adidovsativoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,220
“adido” frequency rank
#3,881
“ativo” frequency rank
35101
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adido ativo
Definition que foi acrescentado diligente, expedito

Where the eye mixes adido and ativo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. adido and ativo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
adido
5 ch
ativo

Visual trap between adido and ativo

A purely visual mix-up. adido (/ɐˈʤi.dʊ/) and ativo (/a.ˈʧi.vu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35101, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adido is recorded at frequency rank #31,220, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɐˈʤi.dʊ/. ativo is at rank #3,881, tagged as anadj, pronounced /a.ˈʧi.vu/.

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 35101, this pair ranks #32,003 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of adido vs ativo

Shared letters: aio. Private to "adido": d. Private to "ativo": tv.

"adido" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "ativo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adido ← addido · addio · adiddo · adiod · aiddo · daido
  • ativo ← aitvo · atiov · ativvo · attivo · atvio · taivo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "adido" and "ativo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɐˈʤi.dʊ/ versus /a.ˈʧi.vu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "adido" vs "ativo" - which ranks higher?
"ativo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,881 in our Portuguese list, against #31,220 for "adido". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "adido" and "ativo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "adido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ativo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,003 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adido" and "ativo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adido vs alado". 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 #32,003 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