pistavsprismaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,903
“pista” frequency rank
#17,894
“prisma” frequency rank
19797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pista prisma
Definition parte de um campo de aviação onde aterram e donde levantam aeronaves sólido com bases paralelas poligonais e paralelogramos como faces laterais

Where the eye mixes pista and prisma

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

5 ch
pista
6 ch
prisma

Look-alike desk: pista vs prisma

A purely visual mix-up. pista (/ˈpiʃ.tɐ/) and prisma (/ˈpɾiʒ.mɐ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pista is recorded at frequency rank #1,903, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpiʃ.tɐ/. prisma is at rank #17,894, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɾiʒ.mɐ/.

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 19797, this pair ranks #50,846 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pista vs prisma

Shared letters: aips. Private to "pista": t. Private to "prisma": mr.

"pista" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "prisma" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pistaipsta · pisat · pissta · pistta · pitsa · ppista · psita
  • prismapirsma · pprisma · primsa · prisam · prismma · prissma · prrisma · prsima

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pista" for "prisma" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpiʃ.tɐ/ versus /ˈpɾiʒ.mɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pista" vs "prisma" - which ranks higher?
"pista" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,903 in our Portuguese list, against #17,894 for "prisma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "pista" and "prisma" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pista" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prisma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,846 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pista" and "prisma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pastar vs pista". 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 #50,846 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