crimevscrívelWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: crime is a noun, crível is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“crime” is a noun and “crível” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#886
“crime” frequency rank
#37,733
“crível” frequency rank
38619
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crime crível
Definition conduta descrita na legislação penal como sendo proibida, por meio de um tipo penal que se pode crer, passível de se crer; acreditável

Where the eye mixes crime and crível

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. crime runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against crível's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
crime
6 ch
crível

Visual trap between crime and crível

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crime is /ˈkɾi.mɨ/ while crível is /ˈkɾi.vɛɫ/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crime is recorded at frequency rank #886, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɾi.mɨ/. crível is at rank #37,733, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɾi.vɛɫ/.

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 38619, this pair ranks #27,789 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of crime vs crível

Shared letters: cer. Private to "crime": im. Private to "crível": lví.

"crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "crível" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crime ← ccrime · cirme · criem · crimme · crmie · crrime · rcime

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crime" and "crível" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "crime" is a noun and "crível" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "crime" or "crível" show up more?
"crime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #886 in our Portuguese list, against #37,733 for "crível". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "crime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crível" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,789 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crime" and "crível" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cível vs crível". 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 #27,789 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