sésamovssétimoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#40,349
“sésamo” frequency rank
#8,829
“sétimo” frequency rank
49178
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sésamo sétimo
Definition sésamo refere-se àquele que ocupa a posição sete em uma série; o que vem depois do sexto

Where the eye mixes sésamo and sétimo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sésamo and sétimo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
sésamo
6 ch
sétimo

Why the eye confuses sésamo with sétimo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sésamo is /ˈsɛsa̝mo̝/ while sétimo is /ˈsɛ.ti.mu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 49178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sésamo is recorded at frequency rank #40,349, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛsa̝mo̝/. sétimo is at rank #8,829, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛ.ti.mu/.

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 49178, this pair ranks #15,894 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sésamo vs sétimo

Shared letters: mosé. Private to "sésamo": a. Private to "sétimo": it.

"sésamo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "sétimo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sésamo" for "sétimo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sésamo" is a noun and "sétimo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sésamo" or "sétimo"?
"sétimo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,829 in our Portuguese list, against #40,349 for "sésamo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "sésamo" and "sétimo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sésamo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sétimo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,894 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sésamo" and "sétimo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sésamo vs sismo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #15,894 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