beijovsbélicoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#2,464
“beijo” frequency rank
#26,655
“bélico” frequency rank
29119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beijo bélico
Definition toque com os beiços na face, mão, boca ou em qualquer objeto como ato de amor, de respeito ou de religiosidade relativo a guerra

Where the eye mixes beijo and bélico

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. beijo runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against bélico's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
beijo
6 ch
bélico

Why the eye confuses beijo with bélico

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beijo is /ˈbej.ʒu/ while bélico is /ˈbɛ.li.ku/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beijo is recorded at frequency rank #2,464, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbej.ʒu/. bélico is at rank #26,655, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɛ.li.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 29119, this pair ranks #39,579 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of beijo vs bélico

Shared letters: bio. Private to "beijo": ej. Private to "bélico": clé.

"beijo" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "bélico" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beijo ← bbeijo · beijjo · beioj · bejio · biejo · ebijo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "beijo" and "bélico" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beijo" is a noun and "bélico" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "beijo" or "bélico"?
"beijo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,464 in our Portuguese list, against #26,655 for "bélico". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "beijo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bélico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,579 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beijo" and "bélico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "báltico vs bélico". 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 #39,579 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