Which to use
“licitação” and “limitação” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,884
- “licitação” frequency rank
- #13,547
- “limitação” frequency rank
- 23431
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | licitação | limitação |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ato ou efeito de licitar | ato ou efeito de limitar |
Where the eye mixes licitação and limitação
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. licitação and limitação follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: licitação vs limitação
A purely visual mix-up. licitação (/li.si.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and limitação (/li.mi.tɐ.ˈsãw/) 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 - c in “licitação” becomes m in “limitação”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
licitação is recorded at frequency rank #9,884, classified as anoun, pronounced /li.si.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. limitação is at rank #13,547, tagged as anoun, pronounced /li.mi.tɐ.ˈsãw/.
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 23431, this pair ranks #46,403 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of licitação vs limitação
Shared letters: ailotãç. Private to "licitação": c. Private to "limitação": m.
"licitação" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV · "limitação" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "licitação" and "limitação" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "licitação" or "limitação" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "licitação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "limitação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,403 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "licitação" and "limitação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "levitação vs limitação". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #46,403 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.