riscovsritmoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,084
“risco” frequency rank
#3,106
“ritmo” frequency rank
4190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature risco ritmo
Definition delineamento; modelo; plano; planta; sulco; traçado; traço movimento ou procedimento com recorrência uniforme de uma batida, marcação, etc

Where the eye mixes risco and ritmo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
risco
5 ch
ritmo

Why the eye confuses risco with ritmo

A purely visual mix-up. risco (/ˈRiʃ.ku/) and ritmo (/ˈRi.tmu/) 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 4190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

risco is recorded at frequency rank #1,084, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRiʃ.ku/. ritmo is at rank #3,106, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRi.tmu/.

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 4190, this pair ranks #70,802 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of risco vs ritmo

Shared letters: ior. Private to "risco": cs. Private to "ritmo": mt.

"risco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "ritmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • riscoirsco · ricso · riscco · risoc · rissco · rrisco · rsico
  • ritmoirtmo · rimto · ritmmo · ritom · rittmo · rritmo · rtimo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "risco" for "ritmo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈRiʃ.ku/ versus /ˈRi.tmu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "risco" vs "ritmo" - which ranks higher?
"risco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,084 in our Portuguese list, against #3,106 for "ritmo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "risco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ritmo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,802 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "risco" and "ritmo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ratio vs ritmo". 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 #70,802 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