refeiçãovsrefeitoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: refeição is a noun, refeito is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“refeição” is a noun and “refeito” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,468
“refeição” frequency rank
#45,056
“refeito” frequency rank
51524
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refeição refeito
Definition porção de alimento consumido a certas horas do dia que se refez; feito de novo

Where the eye mixes refeição and refeito

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

8 ch
refeição
7 ch
refeito

Why the eye confuses refeição with refeito

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refeição is /χe.fej.ˈsãw/ while refeito is /Rɨ.ˈfɐj.tu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51524, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refeição is recorded at frequency rank #6,468, classified as anoun, pronounced /χe.fej.ˈsãw/. refeito is at rank #45,056, tagged as anadj, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈfɐj.tu/.

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 51524, this pair ranks #13,534 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refeição vs refeito

Shared letters: efior. Private to "refeição": ãç. Private to "refeito": t.

"refeição" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV  ·  "refeito" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refeito ← erfeito · reefito · refeiot · refeitto · refetio · reffeito · refieto · rfeeito

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refeição" for "refeito" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refeição" is a noun and "refeito" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "refeição" vs "refeito" - which ranks higher?
"refeição" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,468 in our Portuguese list, against #45,056 for "refeito". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refeição" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refeito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,534 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refeição" and "refeito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refeito vs relento". 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 #13,534 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