cismavscristaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,106
“cisma” frequency rank
#29,298
“crista” frequency rank
61404
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cisma crista
Definition ato de cismar, de cogitar carnosidade vermelha na cabeça de galináceos

Where the eye mixes cisma and crista

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cisma
6 ch
crista

Look-alike desk: cisma vs crista

A purely visual mix-up. cisma (/ˈsiʒ.mɐ/) and crista (/ˈkɾiʃ.tɐ/) 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 61404, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cisma is recorded at frequency rank #32,106, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsiʒ.mɐ/. crista is at rank #29,298, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɾiʃ.tɐ/.

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 61404, this pair ranks #7,153 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cisma vs crista

Shared letters: acis. Private to "cisma": m. Private to "crista": rt.

"cisma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "crista" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cismaccisma · cimsa · cisam · cismma · cissma · csima · icsma
  • cristaccrista · cirsta · crisat · crissta · cristta · critsa · crrista · crsita

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cisma" and "crista" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsiʒ.mɐ/ versus /ˈkɾiʃ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cisma" vs "crista" - which ranks higher?
"crista" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,298 in our Portuguese list, against #32,106 for "cisma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cisma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crista" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,153 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cisma" and "crista" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Christ vs crista". 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 #7,153 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