sexvssextoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,835
“sex” frequency rank
#7,338
“sexto” frequency rank
15173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sex sexto
Definition sexo, gênero refere-se àquele que ocupa a posição sexta em uma série; o que vem depois do quinto

Letter map: sex vs sexto

Shared letters muted; letters that set sex and sexto apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
sex
5 ch
sexto

Role in the sentence - sex and sexto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sex is anoun and sextoanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sex” sits inside “sexto”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sex is recorded at frequency rank #7,835, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɛks/. sexto is at rank #7,338, tagged as anadj.

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 15173, this pair ranks #56,723 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sex vs sexto

Shared letters: esx. Private to "sex": -. Private to "sexto": ot.

"sex" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "sexto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sextoesxto · setxo · sexot · sextto · sexxto · ssexto · sxeto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sex" and "sexto" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sex" is a noun and "sexto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sex" or "sexto" show up more?
"sexto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,338 in our Portuguese list, against #7,835 for "sex". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "sex" vs "sexto" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sex" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sexto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,723 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sex" and "sexto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sau vs sex". 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 #56,723 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