liçãovslítioWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,419
“lição” frequency rank
#26,804
“lítio” frequency rank
30223
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lição lítio
Definition tarefa que o professor passa ao aluno para solidificar o aprendizado elemento químico de símbolo Li, possui o número atômico 3 e massa atômica relativa 7; não é encontrado livre na natureza; é um elemento da classe dos alcalinos; na sua forma pura, é um metal macio de coloração branco prateado; é utilizado para produção de ligas metálicas condutoras de calor, em baterias elétricas, vidros e prismas especiais e, como medicamento, no tratamento de certos tipos de depressão

Where the eye mixes lição and lítio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lição and lítio follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
lição
5 ch
lítio

Why the eye confuses lição with lítio

A purely visual mix-up. lição (/li.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and lítio (/ˈlitiu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30223, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lição is recorded at frequency rank #3,419, classified as anoun, pronounced /li.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. lítio is at rank #26,804, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlitiu/.

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 30223, this pair ranks #38,197 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lição vs lítio

Shared letters: ilo. Private to "lição": ãç. Private to "lítio": tí.

"lição" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "lítio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lição" for "lítio" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/li.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /ˈlitiu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lição" or "lítio" show up more?
"lição" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,419 in our Portuguese list, against #26,804 for "lítio". 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 "lição" and "lítio" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lição" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lítio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,197 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lição" and "lítio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "latido vs lítio". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #38,197 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