cimovscincoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cimo is a noun, cinco is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cimo” is a noun and “cinco” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,235
“cimo” frequency rank
#373
“cinco” frequency rank
25608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cimo cinco
Definition a parte mais alta 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 cimo and cinco

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

4 ch
cimo
5 ch
cinco

Visual trap between cimo and cinco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cimo is /ˈsi.mu/ while cinco is /ˈsĩ.ku/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cimo is recorded at frequency rank #25,235, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsi.mu/. 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 25608, this pair ranks #43,682 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cimo vs cinco

Shared letters: cio. Private to "cimo": m. Private to "cinco": n.

"cimo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cinco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cimoccimo · cimmo · ciom · cmio · icmo
  • cincoccinco · cicno · cincco · cinnco · cinoc · cnico · icnco

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cimo" and "cinco" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cimo" is a noun and "cinco" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cimo" vs "cinco" - which ranks higher?
"cinco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #373 in our Portuguese list, against #25,235 for "cimo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cimo" and "cinco" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cimo" 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 #43,682 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cimo" and "cinco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs cimo". 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 #43,682 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