diabovsdissoTell them apart

Quick tell: diabo is a intj, disso is a contraction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“diabo” is an intj and “disso” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,894
“diabo” frequency rank
#256
“disso” frequency rank
4150
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature diabo disso
Definition expressão de raiva/ira; droga!; pombas! contração da preposição de com o pronome demonstrativo isso:

Where the eye mixes diabo and disso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. diabo (CVVCV) and disso (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
diabo
5 ch
disso

Why the eye confuses diabo with disso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: diabo is /'ʤja.bʊ/ while disso is /ˈdi.su/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

diabo is recorded at frequency rank #3,894, classified as anintj, pronounced /'ʤja.bʊ/. disso is at rank #256, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /ˈdi.su/.

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 4150, this pair ranks #70,850 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of diabo vs disso

Shared letters: dio. Private to "diabo": ab. Private to "disso": s.

"diabo" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "disso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diabo ← daibo · ddiabo · diabbo · diaob · dibao · idabo
  • disso ← ddisso · diso · disos · dsiso · idsso

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "diabo" and "disso" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "diabo" is an intj and "disso" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "diabo" vs "disso" - which ranks higher?
"disso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #256 in our Portuguese list, against #3,894 for "diabo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "diabo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "disso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,850 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "diabo" and "disso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damo vs diabo". 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 #70,850 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