coitovscontaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#38,629
“coito” frequency rank
#223
“conta” frequency rank
38852
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coito conta
Definition cozido qualquer operação de aritmética

Where the eye mixes coito and conta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
coito
5 ch
conta

Look-alike desk: coito vs conta

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coito is /ˈkoj.tu/ while conta is /ˈkõ.tɐ/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38852, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coito is recorded at frequency rank #38,629, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkoj.tu/. conta is at rank #223, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkõ.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 38852, this pair ranks #27,526 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coito vs conta

Shared letters: cot. Private to "coito": i. Private to "conta": an.

"coito" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "conta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coitoccoito · cioto · coiot · coitto · cotio · ocito
  • contacconta · cnota · conat · connta · contta · cotna · ocnta

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coito" and "conta" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coito" is an adjective and "conta" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "coito" or "conta" show up more?
"conta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #223 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "coito" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,526 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coito" and "conta" 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 #27,526 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