Which to use
“sério” and “serious” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #544
- “sério” frequency rank
- #40,330
- “serious” frequency rank
- 40874
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sério | serious |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | que demonstra profundo pensar | sério; austero; sem demonstrar graça ou humor |
Where the eye mixes sério and serious
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: sério vs serious
A purely visual mix-up. sério (/ˈsɛ.ɾju/) and serious (/ˈsɪɹi.əs/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40874, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sério is recorded at frequency rank #544, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛ.ɾju/. serious is at rank #40,330, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɪɹi.əs/.
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 40874, this pair ranks #25,160 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sério vs serious
Shared letters: iors. Private to "sério": é. Private to "serious": eu.
"sério" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "serious" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- serious ← esrious · seirous · seriosu · seriouss · seriuos · seroius · serrious · sreious
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sério" and "serious" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sério" or "serious" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sério" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "serious" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #25,160 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sério" and "serious" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "serias vs serious". 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 #25,160 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.