precedentevspresidenteTell them apart

Quick tell: precedente is a adjective, presidente is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#14,000
“precedente” frequency rank
#215
“presidente” frequency rank
14215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature precedente presidente
Definition que está imediatamente antes chefe de uma nação

Where the eye mixes precedente and presidente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. precedente and presidente follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
precedente
10 ch
presidente

Why the eye confuses precedente with presidente

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: precedente is /pɾɨ.sɨ.ˈdẽ.tɨ/ while presidente is /pɾeziˈdẽʧi/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

precedente is recorded at frequency rank #14,000, classified as anadj, pronounced /pɾɨ.sɨ.ˈdẽ.tɨ/. presidente is at rank #215, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɾeziˈdẽʧi/.

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 14215, this pair ranks #57,949 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of precedente vs presidente

Shared letters: denprt. Private to "precedente": c. Private to "presidente": is.

"precedente" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCCV  ·  "presidente" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • precedente ← percedente · pprecedente · prceedente · preccedente · precdeente · preceddente · precedenet · precedennte
  • presidente ← persidente · ppresidente · preisdente · presdiente · presiddente · presidenet · presidennte · presidentte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "precedente" for "presidente" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "precedente" is an adjective and "presidente" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "precedente" or "presidente" show up more?
"presidente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #215 in our Portuguese list, against #14,000 for "precedente". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "precedente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "presidente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,949 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "precedente" and "presidente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "precedente vs procedente". 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 #57,949 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