Which to use
“cerco” is a noun and “cinco” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,512
- “cerco” frequency rank
- #373
- “cinco” frequency rank
- 6885
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cerco | cinco |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ato de cercar | número equivalente a quatro mais um; cardinalidade de um conjunto que contenha cinco elementos distintos; representado pelo símbolo 5 (algarismos arábicos) ou V (algarismos romanos) |
Where the eye mixes cerco and cinco
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cerco and cinco follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: cerco vs cinco
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cerco is /ˈseɾ.ku/ while cinco is /ˈsĩ.ku/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cerco is recorded at frequency rank #6,512, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈseɾ.ku/. cinco is at rank #373, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsĩ.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 6885, this pair ranks #67,417 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cerco vs cinco
Shared letters: co. Private to "cerco": er. Private to "cinco": in.
"cerco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cinco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cerco" and "cinco" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "cerco" vs "cinco" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cerco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cinco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #67,417 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cerco" and "cinco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerco vs cerda". 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 #67,417 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.