cimovscityConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#25,235
“cimo” frequency rank
#2,931
“city” frequency rank
28166
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cimo city
Definition a parte mais alta cidade

Where the eye mixes cimo and city

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

4 ch
cimo
4 ch
city

Why the eye confuses cimo with city

A purely visual mix-up. cimo (/ˈsi.mu/) and city (/ˈsɪti/) 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 28166, 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/. city is at rank #2,931, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪti/.

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 28166, this pair ranks #40,691 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cimo vs city

Shared letters: ci. Private to "cimo": mo. Private to "city": ty.

"cimo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "city" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cimoccimo · cimmo · ciom · cmio · icmo
  • cityccity · citty · cityy · ciyt · ctiy · icty

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cimo" for "city" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsi.mu/ versus /ˈsɪti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cimo" or "city" show up more?
"city" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,931 in our Portuguese list, against #25,235 for "cimo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "city" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,691 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cimo" and "city" 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 #40,691 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