Which to use
“centro” is a noun and “contre” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #308
- “centro” frequency rank
- #45,771
- “contre” frequency rank
- 46079
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | centro | contre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | local com maior movimento numa cidade, onde alguma ação se exerce com mais intensidade | contra, encostado em, perto de, próximo a: |
Where the eye mixes centro and contre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. centro and contre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between centro and contre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: centro is /ˈsẽ.tɾu/ while contre is /kɔ̃tʁ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
centro is recorded at frequency rank #308, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsẽ.tɾu/. contre is at rank #45,771, tagged as aprep, pronounced /kɔ̃tʁ/.
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 46079, this pair ranks #19,276 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of centro vs contre
Shared letters: cenort. Private to "centro": -. Private to "contre": -.
"centro" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "contre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "centro" and "contre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "centro" or "contre" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "centro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,276 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "centro" and "contre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coentro vs contre". 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 #19,276 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.