listavslitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#493
“lista” frequency rank
#31,433
“lit” frequency rank
31926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lista lit
Definition relação de nomes, lugares ou coisas cama, leito

Where the eye mixes lista and lit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
lista
3 ch
lit

Why the eye confuses lista with lit

A purely visual mix-up. lista (/ˈliʃ.tɐ/) and lit (/li/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lista is recorded at frequency rank #493, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈliʃ.tɐ/. lit is at rank #31,433, tagged as anoun, pronounced /li/.

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 31926, this pair ranks #36,010 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lista vs lit

Shared letters: ilt. Private to "lista": as. Private to "lit": -.

"lista" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "lit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • listailsta · lisat · lissta · listta · litsa · llista · lsita

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lista" for "lit" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈliʃ.tɐ/ versus /li/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lista" or "lit"?
"lista" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #493 in our Portuguese list, against #31,433 for "lit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lista" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,010 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lista" and "lit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lied vs lit". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #36,010 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