ceovscitoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,861
“ceo” frequency rank
#25,237
“cito” frequency rank
34098
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ceo cito
Definition nevoeiro; neblina fazer mover-se, excitar.

Where the eye mixes ceo and cito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ceo
4 ch
cito

Look-alike desk: ceo vs cito

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ceo is /coː/ while cito is /ˈki.toː/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34098, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ceo is recorded at frequency rank #8,861, classified as anoun, pronounced /coː/. cito is at rank #25,237, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈki.toː/.

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 34098, this pair ranks #33,261 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ceo vs cito

Shared letters: co. Private to "ceo": e. Private to "cito": it.

"ceo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "cito" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citoccito · ciot · citto · ctio · icto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ceo" for "cito" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ceo" is a noun and "cito" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ceo" or "cito"?
"ceo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,861 in our Portuguese list, against #25,237 for "cito". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ceo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,261 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ceo" and "cito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs cito". 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 #33,261 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