riscarvsriscoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: riscar is a verb, risco is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“riscar” is a verb and “risco” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,330
“riscar” frequency rank
#1,084
“risco” frequency rank
36414
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature riscar risco
Definition fazer traços ou riscos em delineamento; modelo; plano; planta; sulco; traçado; traço

Where the eye mixes riscar and risco

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

6 ch
riscar
5 ch
risco

Visual trap between riscar and risco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: riscar is /Riʃ.ˈkaɾ/ while risco is /ˈRiʃ.ku/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

riscar is recorded at frequency rank #35,330, classified as averb, pronounced /Riʃ.ˈkaɾ/. risco is at rank #1,084, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRiʃ.ku/.

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 36414, this pair ranks #30,404 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of riscar vs risco

Shared letters: cirs. Private to "riscar": a. Private to "risco": o.

"riscar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "risco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • riscarirscar · ricsar · risacr · riscarr · risccar · riscra · risscar · rriscar
  • riscoirsco · ricso · riscco · risoc · rissco · rrisco · rsico

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "riscar" and "risco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "riscar" is a verb and "risco" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "riscar" or "risco" show up more?
"risco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,084 in our Portuguese list, against #35,330 for "riscar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "riscar" and "risco" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "riscar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "risco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,404 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "riscar" and "risco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rimar vs riscar". 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 #30,404 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