insólitovsinsultoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#46,392
“insólito” frequency rank
#14,168
“insulto” frequency rank
60560
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature insólito insulto
Definition que não é habitual, incomum, raro mensagem ou ato que ofende ou difama

Where the eye mixes insólito and insulto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. insólito runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCV) against insulto's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
insólito
7 ch
insulto

Look-alike desk: insólito vs insulto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: insólito is /ĩ.ˈsɔ.li.tu/ while insulto is /ĩj.ˈsuw.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

insólito is recorded at frequency rank #46,392, classified as anadj, pronounced /ĩ.ˈsɔ.li.tu/. insulto is at rank #14,168, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ĩj.ˈsuw.tu/.

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 60560, this pair ranks #7,580 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of insólito vs insulto

Shared letters: ilnost. Private to "insólito": ó. Private to "insulto": u.

"insólito" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "insulto" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • insulto ← innsulto · insluto · inssulto · insullto · insulot · insultto · insutlo · inuslto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "insólito" for "insulto" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "insólito" is an adjective and "insulto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "insólito" or "insulto" show up more?
"insulto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,168 in our Portuguese list, against #46,392 for "insólito". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "insólito" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "insulto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,580 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "insólito" and "insulto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "insular vs insulto". 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 #7,580 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