samavssumoTell them apart

Quick tell: sama is a pronoun, sumo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sama” is a pronoun and “sumo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,025
“sama” frequency rank
#9,264
“sumo” frequency rank
37289
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sama sumo
Definition forma nominativo feminino singular do pronome sám supremo, máximo

Letter map: sama vs sumo

Shared letters muted; letters that set sama and sumo apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
sama
4 ch
sumo

Part-of-speech tell for sama / sumo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sama is apronoun and sumoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37289, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sama is recorded at frequency rank #28,025, classified as apron. sumo is at rank #9,264, tagged as anadj.

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 37289, this pair ranks #29,356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sama vs sumo

Shared letters: ms. Private to "sama": a. Private to "sumo": ou.

"sama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sumo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • samasaam · samma · smaa · ssama
  • sumosmuo · ssumo · summo · suom · usmo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sama" and "sumo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sama" is a pronoun and "sumo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sama" or "sumo"?
"sumo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,264 in our Portuguese list, against #28,025 for "sama". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "sama" vs "sumo" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sumo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sama" and "sumo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sama vs Sau". 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 #29,356 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