árticovsartigoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ártico is a adjective, artigo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,603
“ártico” frequency rank
#683
“artigo” frequency rank
20286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ártico artigo
Definition do norte; boreal palavra que precede os substantivos para os determinar

Where the eye mixes ártico and artigo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
ártico
6 ch
artigo

Look-alike desk: ártico vs artigo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ártico is /ˈaɾ.ti.ku/ while artigo is /ɐɾ.ˈti.ɡu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ártico is recorded at frequency rank #19,603, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈaɾ.ti.ku/. artigo is at rank #683, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐɾ.ˈti.ɡu/.

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 20286, this pair ranks #50,253 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ártico vs artigo

Shared letters: iort. Private to "ártico": . Private to "artigo": ag.

"ártico" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "artigo" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • artigoaritgo · arrtigo · artgio · artiggo · artiog · arttigo · atrigo · ratigo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ártico" and "artigo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ártico" is an adjective and "artigo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ártico" vs "artigo" - which ranks higher?
"artigo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #683 in our Portuguese list, against #19,603 for "ártico". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ártico" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "artigo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,253 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ártico" and "artigo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apático vs ártico". 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 #50,253 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