desafiovsdesmaioWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,640
“desafio” frequency rank
#32,146
“desmaio” frequency rank
33786
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desafio desmaio
Definition ação de desafiar; proposta que envolve fazer algo difícil, ou ousado, podendo ser em forma de disputa entre duas ou mais pessoas, e podendo haver recompensa material ou imaterial para o vencedor, e punição para o perdedor perda dos sentidos

Letter map: desafio vs desmaio

Shared letters muted; letters that set desafio and desmaio apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. desafio (CVCVCVV) and desmaio (CVCCVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
desafio
7 ch
desmaio

Spelling & dictionary notes on desafio vs desmaio

desafio and desmaio 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desafio is recorded at frequency rank #1,640, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɨ.zɐ.ˈfi.u/. desmaio is at rank #32,146, 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 33786, this pair ranks #33,628 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of desafio vs desmaio

Shared letters: adeios. Private to "desafio": f. Private to "desmaio": m.

"desafio" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "desmaio" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desafio ← ddesafio · deasfio · desaffio · desafoi · desaifo · desfaio · dessafio · dseafio
  • desmaio ← ddesmaio · demsaio · desamio · desmaoi · desmiao · desmmaio · dessmaio · dsemaio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "desafio" for "desmaio" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "desafio" or "desmaio" show up more?
"desafio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,640 in our Portuguese list, against #32,146 for "desmaio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "desafio" and "desmaio".

  • Full dictionary entry for "desafio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desmaio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,628 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desafio" and "desmaio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desmaiado vs desmaio". 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 #33,628 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