prisãovsprismaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#834
“prisão” frequency rank
#17,894
“prisma” frequency rank
18728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prisão prisma
Definition ato ou efeito de prender sólido com bases paralelas poligonais e paralelogramos como faces laterais

Where the eye mixes prisão and prisma

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

6 ch
prisão
6 ch
prisma

Look-alike desk: prisão vs prisma

A purely visual mix-up. prisão (/pɾi.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prisão is recorded at frequency rank #834, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɾi.ˈzɐ̃w̃/. 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 18728, this pair ranks #52,178 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prisão vs prisma

Shared letters: iprs. Private to "prisão": . Private to "prisma": am.

"prisão" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "prisma" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prismapirsma · pprisma · primsa · prisam · prismma · prissma · prrisma · prsima

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prisão" and "prisma" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɾi.ˈzɐ̃w̃/ versus /ˈpɾiʒ.mɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "prisão" or "prisma"?
"prisão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #834 in our Portuguese list, against #17,894 for "prisma". 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 "prisão" and "prisma" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prisão" 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 #52,178 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prisão" and "prisma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs prisão". 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 #52,178 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