dígitovsdireitoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dígito is a noun, direito is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dígito” is a noun and “direito” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,071
“dígito” frequency rank
#262
“direito” frequency rank
27333
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dígito direito
Definition cada um dos símbolos de 0 a 9 usados para formar os números que segue ou se estende em linha reta

Where the eye mixes dígito and direito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dígito runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against direito's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
dígito
7 ch
direito

Visual trap between dígito and direito

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dígito is /ˈdi.ʒi.tu/ while direito is /di.ˈɾɐj.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dígito is recorded at frequency rank #27,071, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdi.ʒi.tu/. direito is at rank #262, tagged as anadj, pronounced /di.ˈɾɐj.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 27333, this pair ranks #41,658 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dígito vs direito

Shared letters: diot. Private to "dígito": gí. Private to "direito": er.

"dígito" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "direito" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • direito ← ddireito · dierito · direiot · direitto · diretio · dirieto · dirreito · drieito

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dígito" for "direito" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dígito" is a noun and "direito" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dígito" or "direito" show up more?
"direito" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #262 in our Portuguese list, against #27,071 for "dígito". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dígito" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "direito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,658 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dígito" and "direito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dígito vs dízimo". 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 #41,658 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