cimovscucoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#25,235
“cimo” frequency rank
#30,486
“cuco” frequency rank
55721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cimo cuco
Definition a parte mais alta que tira partido de algo ou de uma pessoa, que é aproveitado, egoísta

Where the eye mixes cimo and cuco

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

4 ch
cimo
4 ch
cuco

Why the eye confuses cimo with cuco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cimo is /ˈsi.mu/ while cuco is /'ku.kʊ/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55721, 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/. cuco is at rank #30,486, tagged as anadj, pronounced /'ku.kʊ/.

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 55721, this pair ranks #10,432 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cimo vs cuco

Shared letters: co. Private to "cimo": im. Private to "cuco": u.

"cimo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cuco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cimoccimo · cimmo · ciom · cmio · icmo
  • cucoccuco · ccuo · cucco · cuoc · ucco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cimo" and "cuco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cimo" is a noun and "cuco" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cimo" or "cuco" show up more?
"cimo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,235 in our Portuguese list, against #30,486 for "cuco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cimo" and "cuco" 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 "cuco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,432 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cimo" and "cuco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cúbico vs cuco". 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 #10,432 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