cimavsciteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#580
“cima” frequency rank
#23,938
“cite” frequency rank
24518
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cima cite
Definition a parte superior de alguma coisa; alto, cume, cimeira, topo citar, fazer uma citação

Where the eye mixes cima and cite

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

4 ch
cima
4 ch
cite

Look-alike desk: cima vs cite

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cima is /ˈsi.mɐ/ while cite is /saɪt/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24518, 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/. cite is at rank #23,938, tagged as averb, pronounced /saɪt/.

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 24518, this pair ranks #45,076 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cima vs cite

Shared letters: ci. Private to "cima": am. Private to "cite": et.

"cima" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cimaccima · ciam · cimma · cmia · icma
  • citeccite · ciet · citte · ctie · icte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cima" and "cite" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cima" is a noun and "cite" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cima" or "cite" show up more?
"cima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #580 in our Portuguese list, against #23,938 for "cite". 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 "cima" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,076 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cima" and "cite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs cite". 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 #45,076 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