cintovscustoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,456
“cinto” frequency rank
#1,773
“custo” frequency rank
11229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cinto custo
Definition faixa de couro, ou de outro material, com que se aperta a cintura o quanto algo custa, o preço de algo

Where the eye mixes cinto and custo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cinto
5 ch
custo

Look-alike desk: cinto vs custo

A purely visual mix-up. cinto (/ˈsĩ.tu/) and custo (/ˈkuʃ.tu/) 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 11229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cinto is recorded at frequency rank #9,456, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsĩ.tu/. custo is at rank #1,773, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkuʃ.tu/.

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 11229, this pair ranks #61,670 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cinto vs custo

Shared letters: cot. Private to "cinto": in. Private to "custo": su.

"cinto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "custo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cintoccinto · cinnto · cinot · cintto · citno · cnito · icnto
  • custoccusto · csuto · cusot · cussto · custto · cutso · ucsto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cinto" and "custo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsĩ.tu/ versus /ˈkuʃ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cinto" vs "custo" - which ranks higher?
"custo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,773 in our Portuguese list, against #9,456 for "cinto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cinto" and "custo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cinto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "custo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,670 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cinto" and "custo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs cinto". 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 #61,670 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