salmãovssermãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,681
“salmão” frequency rank
#12,981
“sermão” frequency rank
28662
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salmão sermão
Definition peixe da família dos Salmodídeos amarelo-alaranjado discurso ou oração que o sacerdote faz ante os fiéis para ensinar a doutrina cristã

Where the eye mixes salmão and sermão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. salmão and sermão follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
salmão
6 ch
sermão

Look-alike desk: salmão vs sermão

A purely visual mix-up. salmão (/saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/) and sermão (/sɨɾ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/) 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 28662, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salmão is recorded at frequency rank #15,681, classified as anoun, pronounced /saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/. sermão is at rank #12,981, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɨɾ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/.

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 28662, this pair ranks #40,136 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salmão vs sermão

Shared letters: mosã. Private to "salmão": al. Private to "sermão": er.

"salmão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "sermão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "salmão" and "sermão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/saɫ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/ versus /sɨɾ.ˈmɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "salmão" or "sermão"?
"sermão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,981 in our Portuguese list, against #15,681 for "salmão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "salmão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sermão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,136 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salmão" and "sermão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "serias vs sermão". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #40,136 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