electricvselétricoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#19,420
“electric” frequency rank
#6,172
“elétrico” frequency rank
25592
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature electric elétrico
Definition elétrico: relativo à forma de energia em que a sua ação consiste numa manifestação entre forças de atração e de repulsão, que se refere à eletricidade

Letter map: electric vs elétrico

Shared letters muted; letters that set electric and elétrico apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

8 ch
electric
8 ch
elétrico

Pair insight - electric / elétrico

electric and elétrico are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25592, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

electric is recorded at frequency rank #19,420, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪ.ˈlɛk.tɹɪk/. elétrico is at rank #6,172, tagged as anadj.

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 25592, this pair ranks #43,705 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of electric vs elétrico

Shared letters: ceilrt. Private to "electric": -. Private to "elétrico": .

"electric" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCCVC  ·  "elétrico" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • electriceelctric · elcetric · elecctric · elecrtic · electirc · electrci · electricc · electrric

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "electric" for "elétrico" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 6 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "electric" or "elétrico" show up more?
"elétrico" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,172 in our Portuguese list, against #19,420 for "electric". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "electric" and "elétrico".

  • Full dictionary entry for "electric" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "elétrico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,705 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "electric" and "elétrico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elétrico vs eletrónico". 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 #43,705 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