cisãovscitarWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,806
“cisão” frequency rank
#5,831
“citar” frequency rank
42637
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cisão citar
Definition ato de cindir provocar (o toiro) para realizar qualquer sorte tauromáquica

Where the eye mixes cisão and citar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cisão (CVCVV) and citar (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
cisão
5 ch
citar

Visual trap between cisão and citar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cisão is /si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/ while citar is /si.ˈtaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cisão is recorded at frequency rank #36,806, classified as anoun, pronounced /si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/. citar is at rank #5,831, tagged as averb, pronounced /si.ˈtaɾ/.

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 42637, this pair ranks #23,118 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cisão vs citar

Shared letters: ci. Private to "cisão": osã. Private to "citar": art.

"cisão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "citar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citar ← ccitar · ciatr · citarr · citra · cittar · ctiar · ictar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cisão" for "citar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cisão" is a noun and "citar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cisão" or "citar"?
"citar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,831 in our Portuguese list, against #36,806 for "cisão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cisão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "citar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,118 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cisão" and "citar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs cisão". 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 #23,118 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