Which to use
“iniciar” is a verb and “início” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,412
- “iniciar” frequency rank
- #377
- “início” frequency rank
- 3789
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | iniciar | início |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ato de dar ou de ter início | começo |
Letter map: iniciar vs início
Shared letters muted; letters that set iniciar and início apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Part-of-speech tell for iniciar / início
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: iniciar is averb and inícioanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3789, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
iniciar is recorded at frequency rank #3,412, classified as averb. 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 3789, this pair ranks #71,310 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of iniciar vs início
Shared letters: cin. Private to "iniciar": ar. Private to "início": oí.
"iniciar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC · "início" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- iniciar ← iinciar · inciiar · inicair · inicciar · iniciarr · inicira · iniicar · inniciar
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "iniciar" and "início" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "iniciar" or "início" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "iniciar" and "início". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "iniciar" 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 #71,310 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "iniciar" and "início" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inchar vs iniciar". 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 #71,310 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.