cinemavscismaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,111
“cinema” frequency rank
#32,106
“cisma” frequency rank
33217
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cinema cisma
Definition arte de fazer filmes, conhecida como a sétima arte ato de cismar, de cogitar

Where the eye mixes cinema and cisma

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cinema runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against cisma's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cinema
5 ch
cisma

Visual trap between cinema and cisma

A purely visual mix-up. cinema (/si.ˈne.mɐ/) and cisma (/ˈsiʒ.mɐ/) 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 33217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cinema is recorded at frequency rank #1,111, classified as anoun, pronounced /si.ˈne.mɐ/. cisma is at rank #32,106, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsiʒ.mɐ/.

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 33217, this pair ranks #34,353 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cinema vs cisma

Shared letters: acim. Private to "cinema": en. Private to "cisma": s.

"cinema" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cisma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cinema ← ccinema · cienma · cineam · cinemma · cinmea · cinnema · cniema · icnema
  • cisma ← ccisma · cimsa · cisam · cismma · cissma · csima · icsma

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cinema" and "cisma" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/si.ˈne.mɐ/ versus /ˈsiʒ.mɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cinema" or "cisma" show up more?
"cinema" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,111 in our Portuguese list, against #32,106 for "cisma". 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 "cinema" and "cisma" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cinema" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cisma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,353 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cinema" and "cisma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caspa vs cisma". 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 #34,353 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