contágiovscontatoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,272
“contágio” frequency rank
#1,160
“contato” frequency rank
25432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: contágio vs contato

Shared letters muted; letters that set contágio and contato apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. contágio runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against contato's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
contágio
7 ch
contato

Pair insight - contágio / contato

contágio and contato 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contágio is recorded at frequency rank #24,272, classified as anoun, pronounced /kõ.ˈta.ʒju/. contato is at rank #1,160, 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 25432, this pair ranks #43,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of contágio vs contato

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

"contágio" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "contato" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contato ← ccontato · cnotato · conatto · conntato · contaot · contatto · conttao · conttato

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "contágio" for "contato" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "contágio" vs "contato" - which ranks higher?
"contato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,160 in our Portuguese list, against #24,272 for "contágio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "contágio" and "contato".

  • Full dictionary entry for "contágio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contágio" and "contato" 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 #43,881 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