carimbovscarinhoConfusable pair

Which to use

“carimbo” and “carinho” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,892
“carimbo” frequency rank
#3,536
“carinho” frequency rank
32428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carimbo carinho
Definition peça com escritos e/ou desenhos com que se marcam, à tinta, outros objetos como documentos, cartas, etc gesto afetivo entre dois indivíduos que pode envolver contato físico, ou palavras, ou um simples olhar

Where the eye mixes carimbo and carinho

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

7 ch
carimbo
7 ch
carinho

Visual trap between carimbo and carinho

A purely visual mix-up. carimbo (/kɐ.ˈɾĩ.bu/) and carinho (/kɐ.ˈɾi.ɲu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carimbo is recorded at frequency rank #28,892, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈɾĩ.bu/. carinho is at rank #3,536, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈɾi.ɲu/.

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 32428, this pair ranks #35,394 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carimbo vs carinho

Shared letters: acior. Private to "carimbo": bm. Private to "carinho": hn.

"carimbo" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "carinho" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carimbo ← acrimbo · cairmbo · caribmo · carimbbo · carimmbo · carimob · carmibo · carrimbo
  • carinho ← acrinho · cairnho · carihno · carinhho · carinnho · carinoh · carniho · ccarinho

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carimbo" and "carinho" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈɾĩ.bu/ versus /kɐ.ˈɾi.ɲu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "carimbo" vs "carinho" - which ranks higher?
"carinho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,536 in our Portuguese list, against #28,892 for "carimbo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "carimbo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carinho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,394 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carimbo" and "carinho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cachimbo vs carimbo". 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 #35,394 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