coisavscoitoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#105
“coisa” frequency rank
#38,629
“coito” frequency rank
38734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coisa coito
Definition qualquer objeto inanimado; em sentido filosófico, coisa é tudo aquilo subsistente por si mesmo; a filosofia kantiana afirma ser uma coisa aquilo que existe independentemente do espírito; no sentido usual, como para o Direito, coisa é tudo aquilo que, percebido pelos sentidos, pode apresentar utilidade para o homem, caso em que se chama bem material cozido

Where the eye mixes coisa and coito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. coisa and coito follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
coisa
5 ch
coito

Why the eye confuses coisa with coito

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coisa is [ˈkojzɐ] while coito is /ˈkoj.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coisa is recorded at frequency rank #105, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkojzɐ]. coito is at rank #38,629, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkoj.tu/.

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 38734, this pair ranks #27,660 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coisa vs coito

Shared letters: cio. Private to "coisa": as. Private to "coito": t.

"coisa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "coito" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coisa ← ccoisa · ciosa · coias · coissa · cosia · ocisa
  • coito ← ccoito · cioto · coiot · coitto · cotio · ocito

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coisa" for "coito" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coisa" is a noun and "coito" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "coisa" vs "coito" - which ranks higher?
"coisa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #105 in our Portuguese list, against #38,629 for "coito". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "coisa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,660 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coisa" and "coito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs coito". 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 #27,660 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