Which to use
“afinação” and “afinco” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,224
- “afinação” frequency rank
- #36,310
- “afinco” frequency rank
- 67534
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | afinação | afinco |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ato ou efeito de afinar | ato de afincar |
Where the eye mixes afinação and afinco
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. afinação runs 8 letters (VCVCVCVV) against afinco's 6 (VCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: afinação vs afinco
A purely visual mix-up. afinação (/ɐ.fi.nɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and afinco (/ɐ.ˈfĩ.ku/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
afinação is recorded at frequency rank #31,224, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.fi.nɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. afinco is at rank #36,310, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈfĩ.ku/.
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 67534, this pair ranks #4,593 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of afinação vs afinco
Shared letters: afino. Private to "afinação": ãç. Private to "afinco": c.
"afinação" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVV · "afinco" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- afinco ← affinco · aficno · afincco · afinnco · afinoc · afnico · aifnco · fainco
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "afinação" for "afinco" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "afinação" or "afinco" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "afinação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "afinco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,593 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "afinação" and "afinco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "afinado vs afinco". 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 #4,593 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.