indíciovsíndioTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#19,758
“indício” frequency rank
#7,719
“índio” frequency rank
27477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature indício índio
Definition vestígio, laivo pertencente ou relativo aos índios

Letter map: indício vs índio

Shared letters muted; letters that set indício and índio apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

7 ch
indício
5 ch
índio

Part-of-speech tell for indício / índio

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: indício is anoun and índioanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indício is recorded at frequency rank #19,758, classified as anoun, pronounced /ĩ.ˈdi.sju/. índio is at rank #7,719, tagged as anadj.

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 27477, this pair ranks #41,481 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indício vs índio

Shared letters: dinoí. Private to "indício": c. Private to "índio": -.

"indício" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "índio" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "indício" for "índio" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "indício" is a noun and "índio" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "indício" vs "índio" - which ranks higher?
"índio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,719 in our Portuguese list, against #19,758 for "indício". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "indício" vs "índio" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "indício" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "índio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,481 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "indício" and "índio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "índio vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #41,481 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