interaçãovsinterseçãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,566
“interação” frequency rank
#33,894
“interseção” frequency rank
38460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature interação interseção
Definition ação recíproca entre duas ou mais pessoas ou objetos ponto onde duas linhas, planos ou sólidos se encontram

Where the eye mixes interação and interseção

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. interação runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCVV) against interseção's 10 (VCCVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
interação
10 ch
interseção

Why the eye confuses interação with interseção

A purely visual mix-up. interação (/ĩ.tɛ.ɾa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and interseção (/ĩ.tɨɾ.sɛ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

interação is recorded at frequency rank #4,566, classified as anoun, pronounced /ĩ.tɛ.ɾa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. interseção is at rank #33,894, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ĩ.tɨɾ.sɛ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 38460, this pair ranks #27,995 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of interação vs interseção

Shared letters: einortãç. Private to "interação": a. Private to "interseção": s.

"interação" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVV  ·  "interseção" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "interação" for "interseção" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ĩ.tɛ.ɾa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /ĩ.tɨɾ.sɛ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "interação" or "interseção" show up more?
"interação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,566 in our Portuguese list, against #33,894 for "interseção". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "interação" and "interseção" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "interação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "interseção" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,995 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "interação" and "interseção" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "internação vs interseção". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #27,995 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