assédiovsassobioWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,151
“assédio” frequency rank
#35,887
“assobio” frequency rank
44038
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature assédio assobio
Definition operações militares, em frente ou à volta de uma praça, para a tomar primeira pessoa do singular do presente indicativo do verbo assobiar

Where the eye mixes assédio and assobio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. assédio and assobio follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
assédio
7 ch
assobio

Why the eye confuses assédio with assobio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: assédio is /ɐ.ˈsɛ.dju/ while assobio is /ɐ.su.ˈbi.u/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

assédio is recorded at frequency rank #8,151, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈsɛ.dju/. assobio is at rank #35,887, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.su.ˈbi.u/.

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 44038, this pair ranks #21,506 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of assédio vs assobio

Shared letters: aios. Private to "assédio": dé. Private to "assobio": b.

"assédio" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "assobio" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • assobio ← asobio · asosbio · assboio · assobbio · assoboi · assoibo · sasobio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "assédio" for "assobio" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "assédio" is a noun and "assobio" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "assédio" or "assobio" show up more?
"assédio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,151 in our Portuguese list, against #35,887 for "assobio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "assédio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "assobio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,506 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "assédio" and "assobio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "assobiar vs assobio". 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 #21,506 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