índiovsinícioWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,719
“índio” frequency rank
#377
“início” frequency rank
8096
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature índio início
Definition pertencente ou relativo aos índios começo

Letter map: índio vs início

Shared letters muted; letters that set índio and início apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. índio runs 5 letters (VCCVV) against início's 6 (VCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
índio
6 ch
início

Part-of-speech tell for índio / início

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: índio is anadjective and inícioanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8096, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

índio is recorded at frequency rank #7,719, classified as anadj. início is at rank #377, 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 8096, this pair ranks #65,802 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of índio vs início

Shared letters: inoí. Private to "índio": d. Private to "início": c.

"índio" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV  ·  "início" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "índio" and "início" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "índio" is an adjective and "início" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "índio" vs "início" - which ranks higher?
"início" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #377 in our Portuguese list, against #7,719 for "índio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "índio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "início" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,802 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "índio" and "início" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "índio vs ino". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #65,802 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