incensovsincestoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: incenso is a verb, incesto is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“incenso” is a verb and “incesto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,368
“incenso” frequency rank
#21,780
“incesto” frequency rank
45148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incenso incesto
Definition primeira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo incensar união ilícita entre parentes próximos, em grau proibido por lei

Letter map: incenso vs incesto

Shared letters muted; letters that set incenso and incesto apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. incenso and incesto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
incenso
7 ch
incesto

Grammar separator: incenso vs incesto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: incenso is averb and incestoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

incenso is recorded at frequency rank #23,368, classified as averb, pronounced /ĩ.ˈsẽ.su/. incesto is at rank #21,780, tagged as anoun.

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 45148, this pair ranks #20,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of incenso vs incesto

Shared letters: ceinos. Private to "incenso": -. Private to "incesto": t.

"incenso" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "incesto" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incenso ← icnenso · inccenso · incennso · incenos · incensso · incesno · incneso · inecnso
  • incesto ← icnesto · inccesto · incesot · incessto · incestto · incetso · incseto · inecsto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "incenso" for "incesto" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "incenso" is a verb and "incesto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "incenso" vs "incesto" - which ranks higher?
"incesto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,780 in our Portuguese list, against #23,368 for "incenso". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "incenso" and "incesto". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "incenso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "incesto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incenso" and "incesto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incesto vs ingestão". 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 #20,271 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