excerto vs externo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“excerto” is a noun and “externo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,977
“excerto” frequency rank: #6,420
“externo” frequency rank: 39397
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	excerto	externo
Definition	extrato, fragmento de um texto; trecho	que está do lado de fora

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set excerto and externo apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

excerto

7 ch

externo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: excerto is /e."sEx.tu/ while externo is /ɪs.ˈter.nu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

excerto is recorded at frequency rank #32,977, classified as anoun, pronounced /e."sEx.tu/. externo is at rank #6,420, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪs.ˈter.nu/.

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 39397, this pair ranks #26,874 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of excerto vs externo

Shared letters: eortx. Private to "excerto": c. Private to "externo": n.

"excerto" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV · "externo" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

excerto ← ecxerto · exccerto · excerot · excerrto · excertto · excetro · excreto · execrto
externo ← etxerno · exetrno · extenro · externno · exteron · exterrno · extreno · extterno

Frequency comparison

excerto#32,977

externo#6,420

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "excerto" and "externo" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "excerto" is a noun and "externo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "excerto" or "externo"?

"externo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,420 in our Portuguese list, against #32,977 for "excerto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering excerto vs externo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “excerto”; for an adjective, it's “externo”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “excerto” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable