assassinarvsassassínioWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: assassinar is a verb, assassínio is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“assassinar” is a verb and “assassínio” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,586
“assassinar” frequency rank
#20,787
“assassínio” frequency rank
32373
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature assassinar assassínio
Definition cometer assassinato ou assassínio ato de retirar a vida de outrem

Where the eye mixes assassinar and assassínio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

10 ch
assassinar
10 ch
assassínio

Visual trap between assassinar and assassínio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: assassinar is /ɐ.sɐ.si.ˈnaɾ/ while assassínio is /ɐ.sɐ.ˈsi.nju/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

assassinar is recorded at frequency rank #11,586, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.sɐ.si.ˈnaɾ/. assassínio is at rank #20,787, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.sɐ.ˈsi.nju/.

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 32373, this pair ranks #35,449 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of assassinar vs assassínio

Shared letters: ains. Private to "assassinar": r. Private to "assassínio": .

"assassinar" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC  ·  "assassínio" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • assassinarasassinar · asasssinar · assasinar · assasisnar · assassianr · assassinarr · assassinnar · assassinra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "assassinar" and "assassínio" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "assassinar" is a verb and "assassínio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "assassinar" or "assassínio"?
"assassinar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,586 in our Portuguese list, against #20,787 for "assassínio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "assassinar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "assassínio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,449 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "assassinar" and "assassínio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "assassinato vs assassínio". 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 #35,449 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