esferavsesmeroTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,095
“esfera” frequency rank
#44,347
“esmero” frequency rank
49442
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature esfera esmero
Definition figura sólida na qual todos pontos de sua superfície são equidistantes do centro cuidado para produzir uma qualidade máxima no feitio de algo

Letter map: esfera vs esmero

Shared letters muted; letters that set esfera and esmero apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. esfera and esmero follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
esfera
6 ch
esmero

Pair insight - esfera / esmero

esfera and esmero 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

esfera is recorded at frequency rank #5,095, classified as anoun. esmero is at rank #44,347, tagged as anoun, pronounced /iʒ.ˈme.ɾu/.

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 49442, this pair ranks #15,561 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of esfera vs esmero

Shared letters: ers. Private to "esfera": af. Private to "esmero": mo.

"esfera" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "esmero" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • esfera ← efsera · esefra · esfear · esferra · esffera · esfrea · essfera · sefera
  • esmero ← emsero · esemro · esmeor · esmerro · esmmero · esmreo · essmero · semero

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "esfera" and "esmero" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "esfera" vs "esmero" - which ranks higher?
"esfera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,095 in our Portuguese list, against #44,347 for "esmero". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "esfera" vs "esmero" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "esfera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "esmero" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,561 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "esfera" and "esmero" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "esmero vs esterno". 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 #15,561 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