citevscívelWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cite is a verb, cível is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cite” is a verb and “cível” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,938
“cite” frequency rank
#30,490
“cível” frequency rank
54428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cite cível
Definition citar, fazer uma citação relativo ao direito civil; civil

Where the eye mixes cite and cível

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cite
5 ch
cível

Visual trap between cite and cível

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cite is /saɪt/ while cível is /ˈsi.vɛɫ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cite is recorded at frequency rank #23,938, classified as averb, pronounced /saɪt/. cível is at rank #30,490, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsi.vɛɫ/.

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 54428, this pair ranks #11,263 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cite vs cível

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cite": it. Private to "cível": lví.

"cite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cível" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citeccite · ciet · citte · ctie · icte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cite" and "cível" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cite" is a verb and "cível" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cite" or "cível"?
"cite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,938 in our Portuguese list, against #30,490 for "cível". 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 "cite" and "cível" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cível" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,263 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cite" and "cível" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cibele vs cível". 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 #11,263 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