contactvscontestWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,663
“contact” frequency rank
#27,803
“contest” frequency rank
47466
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contact contest
Definition contato; contacto competição, concurso

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set contact and contest apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
contact
7 ch
contest

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

contact and contest are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contact is recorded at frequency rank #19,663, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔ̃takt/. contest is at rank #27,803, tagged as anoun.

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 47466, this pair ranks #17,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of contact vs contest

Shared letters: cnot. Private to "contact": a. Private to "contest": es.

"contact" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "contest" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contactccontact · cnotact · conatct · conntact · contacct · contactt · contatc · contcat
  • contestccontest · cnotest · conetst · conntest · contesst · contestt · contets · contset

Frequency comparison

contact#19,663
contest#27,803

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contact" and "contest" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "contact" or "contest"?
"contact" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,663 in our Portuguese list, against #27,803 for "contest". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering contact vs contest

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “contact” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list