saltovssurtoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,360
“salto” frequency rank
#9,267
“surto” frequency rank
12627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salto surto
Definition movimento executado por um animal que corresponde a perder contato com o solo por alguns segundos, graças à impulsão própria variação repentina da corrente num circuito elétrico

Where the eye mixes salto and surto

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

5 ch
salto
5 ch
surto

Visual trap between salto and surto

A purely visual mix-up. salto (/'saltu/) and surto (/ˈsuɾ.tu/) 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 12627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salto is recorded at frequency rank #3,360, classified as anoun, pronounced /'saltu/. surto is at rank #9,267, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsuɾ.tu/.

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 12627, this pair ranks #59,899 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of salto vs surto

Shared letters: ost. Private to "salto": al. Private to "surto": ru.

"salto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "surto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saltoaslto · sallto · salot · saltto · satlo · slato · ssalto
  • surtosruto · ssurto · surot · surrto · surtto · sutro · usrto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "salto" and "surto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/'saltu/ versus /ˈsuɾ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "salto" vs "surto" - which ranks higher?
"salto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,360 in our Portuguese list, against #9,267 for "surto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "salto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "surto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,899 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salto" and "surto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sueño vs surto". 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 #59,899 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