sábiovssérioWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,398
“sábio” frequency rank
#544
“sério” frequency rank
8942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sábio sério
Definition que tem o poder de discernimento e julgamento em relação ao que é justo e verdadeiro que demonstra profundo pensar

Letter map: sábio vs sério

Shared letters muted; letters that set sábio and sério apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. sábio and sério follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
sábio
5 ch
sério

Pair insight - sábio / sério

sábio and sério are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sábio is recorded at frequency rank #8,398, classified as anadj. sério is at rank #544, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛ.ɾju/.

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 8942, this pair ranks #64,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sábio vs sério

Shared letters: ios. Private to "sábio": bá. Private to "sério": ré.

"sábio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "sério" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sábio" and "sério" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sábio" or "sério" show up more?
"sério" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #544 in our Portuguese list, against #8,398 for "sábio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "sábio" and "sério". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sábio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sério" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,652 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sábio" and "sério" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sábio vs sacro". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #64,652 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