racismovsrealismoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,137
“racismo” frequency rank
#17,626
“realismo” frequency rank
22763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature racismo realismo
Definition conjunto de teorias e crenças que estabelecem uma hierarquia entre as raças, entre as etnias qualidade do que é real

Where the eye mixes racismo and realismo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. racismo runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against realismo's 8 (CVVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
racismo
8 ch
realismo

Look-alike desk: racismo vs realismo

A purely visual mix-up. racismo (/Ra.ˈsiʒ.mu/) and realismo (/Rjɐ.ˈliʒ.mu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

racismo is recorded at frequency rank #5,137, classified as anoun, pronounced /Ra.ˈsiʒ.mu/. realismo is at rank #17,626, tagged as anoun, pronounced /Rjɐ.ˈliʒ.mu/.

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 22763, this pair ranks #47,198 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of racismo vs realismo

Shared letters: aimors. Private to "racismo": c. Private to "realismo": el.

"racismo" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "realismo" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • racismo ← arcismo · raccismo · racimso · racismmo · racisom · racissmo · racsimo · raicsmo
  • realismo ← eralismo · raelismo · reailsmo · realimso · realismmo · realisom · realissmo · reallismo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "racismo" and "realismo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/Ra.ˈsiʒ.mu/ versus /Rjɐ.ˈliʒ.mu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "racismo" or "realismo" show up more?
"racismo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,137 in our Portuguese list, against #17,626 for "realismo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "racismo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "realismo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,198 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "racismo" and "realismo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rácio vs racismo". 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 #47,198 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