estercovsEstêvãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#38,264
“esterco” frequency rank
#38,699
“Estêvão” frequency rank
76963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature esterco Estêvão
Definition excrementos de animais misturados com restos vegetais, em decomposição, ou já descompostos, que servem para volver-lhe a fertilidade ao terreno depois das culturas e assim favorecer as novas plantações Estêvão

Where the eye mixes esterco and Estêvão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
esterco
7 ch
Estêvão

Visual trap between esterco and Estêvão

A purely visual mix-up. esterco (/iʃ.ˈteɾ.ku/) and Estêvão (/es.'te.ba.o/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

esterco is recorded at frequency rank #38,264, classified as anoun, pronounced /iʃ.ˈteɾ.ku/. Estêvão is at rank #38,699, tagged as anoun, pronounced /es.'te.ba.o/.

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 76963, this pair ranks #1,987 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of esterco vs Estêvão

Shared letters: eost. Private to "esterco": cr. Private to "Estêvão": vãê.

"esterco" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "Estêvão" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • estercoesetrco · essterco · estecro · estercco · esteroc · esterrco · estreco · estterco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "esterco" for "Estêvão" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/iʃ.ˈteɾ.ku/ versus /es.'te.ba.o/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "esterco" vs "Estêvão" - which ranks higher?
"esterco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,264 in our Portuguese list, against #38,699 for "Estêvão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "esterco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Estêvão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,987 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "esterco" and "Estêvão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "esterno vs Estêvão". 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 #1,987 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