elitevsexitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,389
“elite” frequency rank
#36,897
“exit” frequency rank
40286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature elite exit
Definition o que há de melhor na sociedade saída

Where the eye mixes elite and exit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
elite
4 ch
exit

Why the eye confuses elite with exit

A purely visual mix-up. elite (/ɛ.ˈli.tɨ/) and exit (/ˈɛgzɪt/, /ˈɛksɪt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

elite is recorded at frequency rank #3,389, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɛ.ˈli.tɨ/. exit is at rank #36,897, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛgzɪt/, /ˈɛksɪt/.

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 40286, this pair ranks #25,850 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of elite vs exit

Shared letters: eit. Private to "elite": l. Private to "exit": x.

"elite" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "exit" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eliteeilte · eliet · elitte · ellite · eltie
  • exiteixt · exitt · exti · exxit · xeit

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "elite" for "exit" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɛ.ˈli.tɨ/ versus /ˈɛgzɪt/, /ˈɛksɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "elite" or "exit"?
"elite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,389 in our Portuguese list, against #36,897 for "exit". 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 "elite" and "exit" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "elite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,850 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "elite" and "exit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Edite vs exit". 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 #25,850 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