chamavscismaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#781
“chama” frequency rank
#32,106
“cisma” frequency rank
32887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chama cisma
Definition labareda que se eleva dos materiais incandescentes, flama ato de cismar, de cogitar

Where the eye mixes chama and cisma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
chama
5 ch
cisma

Look-alike desk: chama vs cisma

A purely visual mix-up. chama (/ˈʃɐ.mɐ/) and cisma (/ˈsiʒ.mɐ/) 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 32887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chama is recorded at frequency rank #781, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɐ.mɐ/. cisma is at rank #32,106, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsiʒ.mɐ/.

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 32887, this pair ranks #34,779 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chama vs cisma

Shared letters: acm. Private to "chama": h. Private to "cisma": is.

"chama" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "cisma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chamacahma · cchama · chaam · chamma · chhama · chmaa · hcama
  • cismaccisma · cimsa · cisam · cismma · cissma · csima · icsma

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chama" and "cisma" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈʃɐ.mɐ/ versus /ˈsiʒ.mɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chama" vs "cisma" - which ranks higher?
"chama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #781 in our Portuguese list, against #32,106 for "cisma". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cisma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,779 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chama" and "cisma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caspa vs cisma". 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 #34,779 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