defeitovsdelitoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,530
“defeito” frequency rank
#11,047
“delito” frequency rank
17577
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature defeito delito
Definition falha, imperfeição (tanto física quanto moral) ação ou omissão punível segundo lei aplicável; crime

Where the eye mixes defeito and delito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. defeito runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against delito's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
defeito
6 ch
delito

Look-alike desk: defeito vs delito

A purely visual mix-up. defeito (/dɨ.ˈfɐj.tu/) and delito (/de.ˈli.tu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

defeito is recorded at frequency rank #6,530, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɨ.ˈfɐj.tu/. delito is at rank #11,047, tagged as anoun, pronounced /de.ˈli.tu/.

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 17577, this pair ranks #53,639 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of defeito vs delito

Shared letters: deiot. Private to "defeito": f. Private to "delito": l.

"defeito" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "delito" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • defeito ← ddefeito · deefito · defeiot · defeitto · defetio · deffeito · defieto · dfeeito
  • delito ← ddelito · deilto · deliot · delitto · dellito · deltio · dleito · edlito

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "defeito" and "delito" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dɨ.ˈfɐj.tu/ versus /de.ˈli.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "defeito" or "delito" show up more?
"defeito" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,530 in our Portuguese list, against #11,047 for "delito". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "defeito" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "delito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,639 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "defeito" and "delito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delfino vs delito". 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 #53,639 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