cimavscisãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#580
“cima” frequency rank
#36,806
“cisão” frequency rank
37386
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cima cisão
Definition a parte superior de alguma coisa; alto, cume, cimeira, topo ato de cindir

Where the eye mixes cima and cisão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cima runs 4 letters (CVCV) against cisão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cima
5 ch
cisão

Why the eye confuses cima with cisão

A purely visual mix-up. cima (/ˈsi.mɐ/) and cisão (/si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cima is recorded at frequency rank #580, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsi.mɐ/. cisão is at rank #36,806, tagged as anoun, pronounced /si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/.

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 37386, this pair ranks #29,225 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cima vs cisão

Shared letters: ci. Private to "cima": am. Private to "cisão": osã.

"cima" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cisão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cima ← ccima · ciam · cimma · cmia · icma

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cima" and "cisão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsi.mɐ/ versus /si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cima" vs "cisão" - which ranks higher?
"cima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #580 in our Portuguese list, against #36,806 for "cisão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cima" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cisão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,225 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cima" and "cisão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs cisão". 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 #29,225 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