dickvsdoceWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,607
“dick” frequency rank
#1,532
“doce” frequency rank
10139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dick doce
Definition grosso, espesso que tem sabor agradável, como o do açúcar, do mel ou qualquer outro adoçante

Where the eye mixes dick and doce

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dick
4 ch
doce

Visual trap between dick and doce

A purely visual mix-up. dick (/ˈdɪk/ ouvir^(fonte ?)) and doce (/ˈdo.sɨ/) 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 10139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dick is recorded at frequency rank #8,607, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɪk/ ouvir^(fonte ?). doce is at rank #1,532, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdo.sɨ/.

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 10139, this pair ranks #63,078 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dick vs doce

Shared letters: cd. Private to "dick": ik. Private to "doce": eo.

"dick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "doce" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dickdcik · ddick · dicck · dickk · dikc · idck
  • docedcoe · ddoce · docce · doec · odce

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dick" and "doce" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdɪk/ ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /ˈdo.sɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dick" or "doce" show up more?
"doce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,532 in our Portuguese list, against #8,607 for "dick". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "doce" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,078 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dick" and "doce" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dick vs dink". 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 #63,078 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