seçãovssérioTell them apart

Quick tell: seção is a noun, sério is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“seção” is a noun and “sério” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,496
“seção” frequency rank
#544
“sério” frequency rank
3040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seção sério
Definition subdivisão de um capítulo, obra, tratado ou estudo que demonstra profundo pensar

Letter map: seção vs sério

Shared letters muted; letters that set seção and sério apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. seção and sério follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
seção
5 ch
sério

Part-of-speech tell for seção / sério

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seção is anoun and sérioanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seção is recorded at frequency rank #2,496, classified as anoun. sério is at rank #544, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛ.ɾju/.

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 3040, this pair ranks #72,176 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seção vs sério

Shared letters: os. Private to "seção": eãç. Private to "sério": iré.

"seção" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "sério" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seção" and "sério" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seção" is a noun and "sério" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "seção" or "sério"?
"sério" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #544 in our Portuguese list, against #2,496 for "seção". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "seção" vs "sério" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sério" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,176 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seção" and "sério" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seção vs seno". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #72,176 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