cisãovscoesãoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#36,806
“cisão” frequency rank
#18,534
“coesão” frequency rank
55340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cisão coesão
Definition ato de cindir o ato ou efeito de manter-se unido

Where the eye mixes cisão and coesão

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

5 ch
cisão
6 ch
coesão

Why the eye confuses cisão with coesão

A purely visual mix-up. cisão (/si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and coesão (/kwe.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) 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 55340, 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/. coesão is at rank #18,534, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kwe.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 55340, this pair ranks #10,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cisão vs coesão

Shared letters: cosã. Private to "cisão": i. Private to "coesão": e.

"cisão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "coesão" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cisão" and "coesão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/si.ˈzɐ̃w̃/ versus /kwe.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cisão" or "coesão" show up more?
"coesão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,534 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cisão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coesão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cisão" and "coesão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs cisão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #10,652 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