cultvscultoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#21,706
“cult” frequency rank
#4,717
“culto” frequency rank
26423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cult culto
Definition culto que se cultivou

Letter map: cult vs culto

Shared letters muted; letters that set cult and culto apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
cult
5 ch
culto

Grammar separator: cult vs culto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cult is anoun and cultoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “cult” sits inside “culto”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cult is recorded at frequency rank #21,706, classified as anoun. culto is at rank #4,717, tagged as anadj.

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 26423, this pair ranks #42,734 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cult vs culto

Shared letters: cltu. Private to "cult": -. Private to "culto": o.

"cult" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "culto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cultccult · clut · cullt · cultt · cutl · uclt
  • cultocculto · cluto · cullto · culot · cultto · cutlo · uclto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cult" and "culto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cult" is a noun and "culto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cult" vs "culto" - which ranks higher?
"culto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,717 in our Portuguese list, against #21,706 for "cult". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "cult" and "culto". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cult" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "culto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,734 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cult" and "culto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coat vs cult". 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 #42,734 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