profusãovsprovisãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#35,739
“profusão” frequency rank
#23,462
“provisão” frequency rank
59201
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature profusão provisão
Definition abundância prescrição

Where the eye mixes profusão and provisão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. profusão and provisão follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
profusão
8 ch
provisão

Why the eye confuses profusão with provisão

A purely visual mix-up. profusão (/pɾu.fu.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and provisão (/pɾu.vi.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) 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 59201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

profusão is recorded at frequency rank #35,739, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɾu.fu.ˈzɐ̃w̃/. provisão is at rank #23,462, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɾu.vi.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 59201, this pair ranks #8,308 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of profusão vs provisão

Shared letters: oprsã. Private to "profusão": fu. Private to "provisão": iv.

"profusão" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "provisão" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "profusão" and "provisão" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɾu.fu.ˈzɐ̃w̃/ versus /pɾu.vi.ˈzɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "profusão" vs "provisão" - which ranks higher?
"provisão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,462 in our Portuguese list, against #35,739 for "profusão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "profusão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provisão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,308 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "profusão" and "provisão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provido vs provisão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #8,308 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