liçãovsloçãoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,419
“lição” frequency rank
#32,245
“loção” frequency rank
35664
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lição loção
Definition tarefa que o professor passa ao aluno para solidificar o aprendizado líquido perfumado e levemente alcoolizado para o tratamento da pele e dos cabelos

Where the eye mixes lição and loção

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lição and loção 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
loção

Why the eye confuses lição with loção

A purely visual mix-up. lição (/li.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and loção (/lu.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 a single letter - i in “lição” becomes o in “loção”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35664, 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/. loção is at rank #32,245, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lu.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 35664, this pair ranks #31,354 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lição vs loção

Shared letters: loãç. Private to "lição": i. Private to "loção": -.

"lição" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "loção" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lição" for "loção" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/li.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /lu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lição" or "loção" show up more?
"lição" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,419 in our Portuguese list, against #32,245 for "loção". 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 "loção" 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 "loção" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,354 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lição" and "loção" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loção vs loch". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,354 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