discursarvsdiscursoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: discursar is a verb, discurso is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“discursar” is a verb and “discurso” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,922
“discursar” frequency rank
#1,845
“discurso” frequency rank
32767
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature discursar discurso
Definition fazer discurso falação

Where the eye mixes discursar and discurso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. discursar runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against discurso's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
discursar
8 ch
discurso

Look-alike desk: discursar vs discurso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: discursar is /diʃ.kuɾ.ˈsaɾ/ while discurso is /diʃ.ˈkuɾ.su/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32767, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

discursar is recorded at frequency rank #30,922, classified as averb, pronounced /diʃ.kuɾ.ˈsaɾ/. discurso is at rank #1,845, tagged as anoun, pronounced /diʃ.ˈkuɾ.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 32767, this pair ranks #34,934 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of discursar vs discurso

Shared letters: cdirsu. Private to "discursar": a. Private to "discurso": o.

"discursar" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "discurso" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • discursar ← ddiscursar · dicsursar · disccursar · discrusar · discurasr · discurrsar · discursarr · discursra
  • discurso ← ddiscurso · dicsurso · disccurso · discruso · discuros · discurrso · discursso · discusro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "discursar" for "discurso" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "discursar" is a verb and "discurso" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "discursar" or "discurso" show up more?
"discurso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,845 in our Portuguese list, against #30,922 for "discursar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "discursar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "discurso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,934 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "discursar" and "discurso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "discursar vs dispersar". 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 #34,934 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