lingüísticavslinguísticoTell them apart

Quick tell: lingüística is a noun, linguístico is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#27,555
“lingüística” frequency rank
#18,631
“linguístico” frequency rank
46186
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lingüística linguístico
Definition linguística relativo à linguística ou à língua

Where the eye mixes lingüística and linguístico

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. lingüística and linguístico follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
lingüística
11 ch
linguístico

Look-alike desk: lingüística vs linguístico

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lingüística is /lin."gwis.ti.ka/ while linguístico is /lĩ.ˈɡwiʃ.ti.ku/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lingüística is recorded at frequency rank #27,555, classified as anoun, pronounced /lin."gwis.ti.ka/. linguístico is at rank #18,631, tagged as anadj, pronounced /lĩ.ˈɡwiʃ.ti.ku/.

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 46186, this pair ranks #19,157 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lingüística vs linguístico

Shared letters: cgilnstí. Private to "lingüística": . Private to "linguístico": ou.

"lingüística" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVCV  ·  "linguístico" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lingüística" for "linguístico" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lingüística" is a noun and "linguístico" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lingüística" or "linguístico" show up more?
"linguístico" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,631 in our Portuguese list, against #27,555 for "lingüística". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lingüística" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "linguístico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,157 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #19,157 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