infeçãovsinspeçãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“infeção” and “inspeção” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,622
“infeção” frequency rank
#9,868
“inspeção” frequency rank
50490
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infeção inspeção
Definition invasão de micro-organismos patogénicos ato ou efeito de inspecionar, vistoriar:

Letter map: infeção vs inspeção

Shared letters muted; letters that set infeção and inspeção apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. infeção runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against inspeção's 8 (VCCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
infeção
8 ch
inspeção

Corpus notes: infeção and inspeção

infeção and inspeção are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50490, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infeção is recorded at frequency rank #40,622, classified as anoun. inspeção is at rank #9,868, 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 50490, this pair ranks #14,466 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of infeção vs inspeção

Shared letters: einoãç. Private to "infeção": f. Private to "inspeção": ps.

"infeção" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "inspeção" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "infeção" and "inspeção" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "infeção" or "inspeção" show up more?
"inspeção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,868 in our Portuguese list, against #40,622 for "infeção". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "infeção" and "inspeção".

  • Full dictionary entry for "infeção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inspeção" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,466 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infeção" and "inspeção" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infeção vs inflexão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #14,466 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