Which to use
“prisão” and “prison” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #834
- “prisão” frequency rank
- #18,155
- “prison” frequency rank
- 18989
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | prisão | prison |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ato ou efeito de prender | prisão, cadeia, cárcere: |
Where the eye mixes prisão and prison
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between prisão and prison
A purely visual mix-up. prisão (/pɾi.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and prison (/pʁi.zɔ̃/) 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 18989, 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/. prison is at rank #18,155, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pʁi.zɔ̃/.
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 18989, this pair ranks #51,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of prisão vs prison
Shared letters: ioprs. Private to "prisão": ã. Private to "prison": n.
"prisão" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV · "prison" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- prison ← pirson · pprison · priosn · prisno · prisonn · prisson · prrison · prsion
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "prisão" and "prison" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "prisão" or "prison" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "prisão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prison" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #51,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "prisão" and "prison" 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 #51,879 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.