scivsskinTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,904
“sci” frequency rank
#18,716
“skin” frequency rank
48620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sci skin
Definition esqui, placa geralmente de madeira para deslizar na água ou na neve pele

Where the eye mixes sci and skin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
sci
4 ch
skin

Look-alike desk: sci vs skin

A purely visual mix-up. sci (/ˈʃi/) and skin (/ˈskin/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sci is recorded at frequency rank #29,904, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃi/. skin is at rank #18,716, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈskin/.

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 48620, this pair ranks #16,546 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sci vs skin

Shared letters: is. Private to "sci": c. Private to "skin": kn.

"sci" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "skin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skinksin · sikn · skinn · skkin · skni · sskin

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sci" for "skin" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈʃi/ versus /ˈskin/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sci" vs "skin" - which ranks higher?
"skin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,716 in our Portuguese list, against #29,904 for "sci". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sci" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "skin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,546 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sci" and "skin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sci". 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 #16,546 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