descansovsdescontoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,406
“descanso” frequency rank
#5,726
“desconto” frequency rank
11132
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature descanso desconto
Definition repouso/pausa no trabalho, nos afazeres ato ou efeito de descontar

Where the eye mixes descanso and desconto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. descanso and desconto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
descanso
8 ch
desconto

Why the eye confuses descanso with desconto

A purely visual mix-up. descanso (/dɨʃ.ˈkɐ̃.su/) and desconto (/dɨʃ.ˈkõ.tu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

descanso is recorded at frequency rank #5,406, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɨʃ.ˈkɐ̃.su/. desconto is at rank #5,726, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɨʃ.ˈkõ.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 11132, this pair ranks #61,786 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of descanso vs desconto

Shared letters: cdenos. Private to "descanso": a. Private to "desconto": t.

"descanso" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "desconto" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • descanso ← ddescanso · decsanso · desacnso · descannso · descanos · descansso · descasno · desccanso
  • desconto ← ddesconto · decsonto · descconto · descnoto · desconnto · desconot · descontto · descotno

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "descanso" for "desconto" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/dɨʃ.ˈkɐ̃.su/ versus /dɨʃ.ˈkõ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "descanso" or "desconto"?
"descanso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,406 in our Portuguese list, against #5,726 for "desconto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "descanso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desconto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,786 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "descanso" and "desconto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "descanso vs descansou". 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 #61,786 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