cincovscisãoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#373
“cinco” frequency rank
#36,806
“cisão” frequency rank
37179
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cinco cisão
Definition 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) ato de cindir

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cinco and cisão apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
cinco
5 ch
cisão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cinco is /ˈsĩ.ku/ while cisão is /si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37179, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cinco is recorded at frequency rank #373, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsĩ.ku/. 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 37179, this pair ranks #29,490 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cinco vs cisão

Shared letters: cio. Private to "cinco": n. Private to "cisão": .

"cinco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cisão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cincoccinco · cicno · cincco · cinnco · cinoc · cnico · icnco

Frequency comparison

cinco#373
cisão#36,806

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cinco" and "cisão" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cinco" is an adjective and "cisão" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cinco" or "cisão"?
"cinco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #373 in our Portuguese list, against #36,806 for "cisão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cinco vs cisão

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “cinco”; for a noun, it's “cisão”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cinco” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list