cólicavscolisãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,652
“cólica” frequency rank
#9,976
“colisão” frequency rank
44628
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cólica colisão
Definition dor intensa na cavidade abdominal choque

Where the eye mixes cólica and colisão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cólica runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against colisão's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cólica
7 ch
colisão

Look-alike desk: cólica vs colisão

A purely visual mix-up. cólica (/ˈkɔ.li.kɐ/) and colisão (/ku.li.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 44628, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cólica is recorded at frequency rank #34,652, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔ.li.kɐ/. colisão is at rank #9,976, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ku.li.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 44628, this pair ranks #20,826 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cólica vs colisão

Shared letters: cil. Private to "cólica": aó. Private to "colisão": osã.

"cólica" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "colisão" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cólica" and "colisão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɔ.li.kɐ/ versus /ku.li.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cólica" or "colisão" show up more?
"colisão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,976 in our Portuguese list, against #34,652 for "cólica". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cólica" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "colisão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,826 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cólica" and "colisão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cólica vs conca". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #20,826 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