cimovscisãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#25,235
“cimo” frequency rank
#36,806
“cisão” frequency rank
62041
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cimo cisão
Definition a parte mais alta ato de cindir

Where the eye mixes cimo and cisão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cimo 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
cimo
5 ch
cisão

Look-alike desk: cimo vs cisão

A purely visual mix-up. cimo (/ˈsi.mu/) 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 62041, 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/. 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 62041, this pair ranks #6,857 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cimo vs cisão

Shared letters: cio. Private to "cimo": m. Private to "cisão": sã.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cimo ← ccimo · cimmo · ciom · cmio · icmo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cimo" and "cisão" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsi.mu/ versus /si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cimo" or "cisão" show up more?
"cimo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,235 in our Portuguese list, against #36,806 for "cisão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cimo" 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 #6,857 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cimo" 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 #6,857 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