confiscarvsconfiscoTell them apart

Quick tell: confiscar is a verb, confisco is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“confiscar” is a verb and “confisco” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,703
“confiscar” frequency rank
#27,014
“confisco” frequency rank
58717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature confiscar confisco
Definition tomar bens do particular pela força ou autoridade, sem que seja oferecida ao prejudicado qualquer contraprestação em troca ato ou efeito de confiscar

Where the eye mixes confiscar and confisco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. confiscar runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against confisco's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
confiscar
8 ch
confisco

Visual trap between confiscar and confisco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: confiscar is /kõ.fiʃ.ˈkaχ/, /kõ.fis.ˈkaχ/ (menos usado) while confisco is /kõ.ˈfiʃ.ku/, /kõ.ˈfis.ku/ (menos frequente). 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

confiscar is recorded at frequency rank #31,703, classified as averb, pronounced /kõ.fiʃ.ˈkaχ/, /kõ.fis.ˈkaχ/ (menos usado). confisco is at rank #27,014, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kõ.ˈfiʃ.ku/, /kõ.ˈfis.ku/ (menos frequente).

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 58717, this pair ranks #8,587 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of confiscar vs confisco

Shared letters: cfinos. Private to "confiscar": ar. Private to "confisco": -.

"confiscar" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "confisco" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • confiscar ← cconfiscar · cnofiscar · cofniscar · conffiscar · conficsar · confisacr · confiscarr · confisccar
  • confisco ← cconfisco · cnofisco · cofnisco · conffisco · conficso · confiscco · confisoc · confissco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "confiscar" and "confisco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "confiscar" is a verb and "confisco" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "confiscar" or "confisco" show up more?
"confisco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,014 in our Portuguese list, against #31,703 for "confiscar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "confiscar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "confisco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,587 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "confiscar" and "confisco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "confiado vs confisco". 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 #8,587 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