seleçãovssoluçãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#924
“seleção” frequency rank
#1,374
“solução” frequency rank
2298
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seleção solução
Definition ato ou efeito de selecionar resolução, resposta

Where the eye mixes seleção and solução

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. seleção and solução follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
seleção
7 ch
solução

Visual trap between seleção and solução

A purely visual mix-up. seleção (/sɨ.lɛ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and solução (/su.lu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 2298, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seleção is recorded at frequency rank #924, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɨ.lɛ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. solução is at rank #1,374, tagged as anoun, pronounced /su.lu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 2298, this pair ranks #73,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of seleção vs solução

Shared letters: losãç. Private to "seleção": e. Private to "solução": u.

"seleção" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "solução" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seleção" and "solução" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/sɨ.lɛ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /su.lu.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "seleção" or "solução" show up more?
"seleção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #924 in our Portuguese list, against #1,374 for "solução". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "seleção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "solução" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seleção" and "solução" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sedição vs seleção". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #73,126 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