principadovsprincípioWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,513
“principado” frequency rank
#1,905
“princípio” frequency rank
48418
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature principado princípio
Definition estado soberano governado por um monarca com título de príncipe ou princesa. o que vem primeiro, origem, início, começo

Letter map: principado vs princípio

Shared letters muted; letters that set principado and princípio apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. principado runs 10 letters (CCVCCVCVCV) against princípio's 9 (CCVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
principado
9 ch
princípio

Pair insight - principado / princípio

principado and princípio 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48418, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

principado is recorded at frequency rank #46,513, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɾĩ.si.ˈpa.du/. princípio is at rank #1,905, tagged as anoun.

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 48418, this pair ranks #16,749 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of principado vs princípio

Shared letters: cinopr. Private to "principado": ad. Private to "princípio": í.

"principado" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCVCV  ·  "princípio" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • principado ← pirncipado · pprincipado · pricnipado · princcipado · princiapdo · principaddo · principaod · principdao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "principado" and "princípio" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "principado" or "princípio"?
"princípio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,905 in our Portuguese list, against #46,513 for "principado". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "principado" vs "princípio" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "principado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "princípio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,749 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "principado" and "princípio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "principado vs principal". 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 #16,749 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