fiscovsfracoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fisco is a noun, fraco is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,286
“fisco” frequency rank
#3,401
“fraco” frequency rank
41687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fisco fraco
Definition recursos destinados à manutenção do príncipe da Roma Imperial sem força

Where the eye mixes fisco and fraco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fisco (CVCCV) and fraco (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
fisco
5 ch
fraco

Look-alike desk: fisco vs fraco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fisco is /ˈfiʃ.ku/ while fraco is /ˈfɾa.ku/. 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 41687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fisco is recorded at frequency rank #38,286, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfiʃ.ku/. fraco is at rank #3,401, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɾa.ku/.

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 41687, this pair ranks #24,193 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fisco vs fraco

Shared letters: cfo. Private to "fisco": is. Private to "fraco": ar.

"fisco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fraco" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fisco ← ffisco · ficso · fiscco · fisoc · fissco · fsico · ifsco
  • fraco ← farco · ffraco · fracco · fraoc · frcao · frraco · rfaco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fisco" and "fraco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fisco" is a noun and "fraco" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fisco" vs "fraco" - which ranks higher?
"fraco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,401 in our Portuguese list, against #38,286 for "fisco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fisco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fraco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,193 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fisco" and "fraco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filão vs fisco". 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 #24,193 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