alimentaçãovsalimentícioWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: alimentação is a noun, alimentício is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alimentação” is a noun and “alimentício” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,449
“alimentação” frequency rank
#38,980
“alimentício” frequency rank
42429
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alimentação alimentício
Definition ato ou efeito de alimentar relativo à alimentação

Where the eye mixes alimentação and alimentício

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. alimentação and alimentício follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVCCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
alimentação
11 ch
alimentício

Look-alike desk: alimentação vs alimentício

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alimentação is /ɐ.li.mẽ.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ while alimentício is /ɐ.li.mẽ.ˈti.sju/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42429, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alimentação is recorded at frequency rank #3,449, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.li.mẽ.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. alimentício is at rank #38,980, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.li.mẽ.ˈti.sju/.

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 42429, this pair ranks #23,345 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alimentação vs alimentício

Shared letters: aeilmnot. Private to "alimentação": ãç. Private to "alimentício": cí.

"alimentação" · 11 letters · shape VCVCVCCVCVV  ·  "alimentício" · 11 letters · shape VCVCVCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "alimentação" and "alimentício" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alimentação" is a noun and "alimentício" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "alimentação" or "alimentício" show up more?
"alimentação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,449 in our Portuguese list, against #38,980 for "alimentício". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alimentação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alimentício" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,345 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alimentação" and "alimentício" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alimentação vs amamentação". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #23,345 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