risovsritmoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,434
“riso” frequency rank
#3,106
“ritmo” frequency rank
13540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature riso ritmo
Definition ato ou efeito de rir; demonstração clara e geralmente espontânea de alegria movimento ou procedimento com recorrência uniforme de uma batida, marcação, etc

Where the eye mixes riso and ritmo

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

4 ch
riso
5 ch
ritmo

Visual trap between riso and ritmo

A purely visual mix-up. riso (/ˈRi.zu/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

riso is recorded at frequency rank #10,434, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRi.zu/. 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 13540, this pair ranks #58,758 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of riso vs ritmo

Shared letters: ior. Private to "riso": s. Private to "ritmo": mt.

"riso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ritmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • risoirso · rios · risso · rriso · rsio
  • ritmoirtmo · rimto · ritmmo · ritom · rittmo · rritmo · rtimo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "riso" and "ritmo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈRi.zu/ versus /ˈRi.tmu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "riso" vs "ritmo" - which ranks higher?
"ritmo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,106 in our Portuguese list, against #10,434 for "riso". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "riso" 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 #58,758 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "riso" and "ritmo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "riso vs rust". 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 #58,758 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