sadismovssexismoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,103
“sadismo” frequency rank
#35,344
“sexismo” frequency rank
79447
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sadismo sexismo
Definition excitação e prazer sexual provocados pelo sofrimento alheio ato discriminante ou preconceituoso em função do sexo

Where the eye mixes sadismo and sexismo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sadismo and sexismo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
sadismo
7 ch
sexismo

Look-alike desk: sadismo vs sexismo

A purely visual mix-up. sadismo (/sa.ˈdiʒ.mu/) and sexismo (/sɛ.ˈksiʒ.mu/) 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 79447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sadismo is recorded at frequency rank #44,103, classified as anoun, pronounced /sa.ˈdiʒ.mu/. sexismo is at rank #35,344, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɛ.ˈksiʒ.mu/.

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 79447, this pair ranks #1,505 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sadismo vs sexismo

Shared letters: imos. Private to "sadismo": ad. Private to "sexismo": ex.

"sadismo" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "sexismo" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sadismo ← asdismo · saddismo · sadimso · sadismmo · sadisom · sadissmo · sadsimo · saidsmo
  • sexismo ← esxismo · seixsmo · seximso · sexismmo · sexisom · sexissmo · sexsimo · sexxismo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sadismo" and "sexismo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sa.ˈdiʒ.mu/ versus /sɛ.ˈksiʒ.mu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sadismo" or "sexismo" show up more?
"sexismo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,344 in our Portuguese list, against #44,103 for "sadismo". 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 "sadismo" and "sexismo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sadismo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sexismo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,505 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sadismo" and "sexismo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sexismo vs sexista". 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 #1,505 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