Which to use
“precário” is an adjective and “prefácio” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,757
- “precário” frequency rank
- #15,654
- “prefácio” frequency rank
- 40411
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | precário | prefácio |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | de pouca estabilidade ou duração | texto preliminar de apresentação, geralmente breve, escrito pelo autor ou por outrem, colocado no começo do livro, com explicações sobre seu conteúdo, objetivos ou sobre a pessoa do autor |
Letter map: precário vs prefácio
Shared letters muted; letters that set precário and prefácio apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. precário and prefácio follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - precário and prefácio
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: precário is anadjective and prefácioanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40411, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
precário is recorded at frequency rank #24,757, classified as anadj. prefácio is at rank #15,654, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɾɨ.ˈfa.sju/.
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 40411, this pair ranks #25,713 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of precário vs prefácio
Shared letters: ceioprá. Private to "precário": -. Private to "prefácio": f.
"precário" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV · "prefácio" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "precário" and "prefácio" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "precário" or "prefácio" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "precário" and "prefácio". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "precário" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prefácio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #25,713 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "precário" and "prefácio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "precário vs preparo". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #25,713 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.