precisãovsprisãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,230
“precisão” frequency rank
#834
“prisão” frequency rank
7064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature precisão prisão
Definition ato ou efeito de precisar, ter necessidade ou carência de algo: ato ou efeito de prender

Letter map: precisão vs prisão

Shared letters muted; letters that set precisão and prisão apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. precisão runs 8 letters (CCVCVCVV) against prisão's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
precisão
6 ch
prisão

Corpus notes: precisão and prisão

precisão and prisão are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

precisão is recorded at frequency rank #6,230, classified as anoun. prisão is at rank #834, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɾi.ˈzɐ̃w̃/.

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 7064, this pair ranks #67,179 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of precisão vs prisão

Shared letters: ioprsã. Private to "precisão": ce. Private to "prisão": -.

"precisão" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "prisão" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "precisão" for "prisão" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "precisão" or "prisão" show up more?
"prisão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #834 in our Portuguese list, against #6,230 for "precisão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "precisão" vs "prisão" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "precisão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prisão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,179 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "precisão" and "prisão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "precisão vs predição". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #67,179 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