contactovscontágioWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,803
“contacto” frequency rank
#24,272
“contágio” frequency rank
29075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contacto contágio
Definition o fato de contactar transmissão ou propagação de doença por contato direto ou indireto

Where the eye mixes contacto and contágio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

8 ch
contacto
8 ch
contágio

Look-alike desk: contacto vs contágio

A purely visual mix-up. contacto (/kõ.ˈtak.tu/) and contágio (/kõ.ˈta.ʒju/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contacto is recorded at frequency rank #4,803, classified as anoun, pronounced /kõ.ˈtak.tu/. contágio is at rank #24,272, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kõ.ˈta.ʒju/.

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 29075, this pair ranks #39,642 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contacto vs contágio

Shared letters: cnot. Private to "contacto": a. Private to "contágio": giá.

"contacto" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "contágio" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contactoccontacto · cnotacto · conatcto · conntacto · contaccto · contacot · contactto · contatco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "contacto" for "contágio" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kõ.ˈtak.tu/ versus /kõ.ˈta.ʒju/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "contacto" or "contágio"?
"contacto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,803 in our Portuguese list, against #24,272 for "contágio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "contacto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contágio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,642 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contacto" and "contágio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contágio vs contagioso". 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 #39,642 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