Which to use
“século” is a noun and “seguro” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,102
- “século” frequency rank
- #1,410
- “seguro” frequency rank
- 2512
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | século | seguro |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | período de cem anos que se conta a partir de um ponto cronologicamente determinado | na ausência de perigo ou risco |
Where the eye mixes século and seguro
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. século and seguro follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: século vs seguro
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: século is /ˈsɛ.ku.lu/ while seguro is /sɨ.ˈɡu.ɾu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
século is recorded at frequency rank #1,102, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛ.ku.lu/. seguro is at rank #1,410, tagged as anadj, pronounced /sɨ.ˈɡu.ɾu/.
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 2512, this pair ranks #72,857 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of século vs seguro
Shared letters: osu. Private to "século": clé. Private to "seguro": egr.
"século" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "seguro" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- seguro ← esguro · segguro · segruo · seguor · segurro · seugro · sgeuro · sseguro
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "século" and "seguro" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "século" or "seguro"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "século" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "seguro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,857 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "século" and "seguro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saguão vs seguro". 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 #72,857 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.