circovscívicoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#5,717
“circo” frequency rank
#16,485
“cívico” frequency rank
22202
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature circo cívico
Definition em Roma, recinto onde se realizavam jogos para entretenimento público; o conjunto dos jogos relativo ao civil

Letter map: circo vs cívico

Shared letters muted; letters that set circo and cívico apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. circo runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cívico's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
circo
6 ch
cívico

Grammar separator: circo vs cívico

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: circo is anoun and cívicoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

circo is recorded at frequency rank #5,717, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsirku/. cívico is at rank #16,485, tagged as anadj.

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 22202, this pair ranks #47,898 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of circo vs cívico

Shared letters: cio. Private to "circo": r. Private to "cívico": ví.

"circo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cívico" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • circo ← ccirco · cicro · circco · ciroc · cirrco · crico · icrco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "circo" for "cívico" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "circo" is a noun and "cívico" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "circo" vs "cívico" - which ranks higher?
"circo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,717 in our Portuguese list, against #16,485 for "cívico". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "circo" and "cívico".

  • Full dictionary entry for "circo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cívico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,898 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "circo" and "cívico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cívico vs cúbico". 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 #47,898 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