sexismovssexistaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,344
“sexismo” frequency rank
#37,526
“sexista” frequency rank
72870
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sexismo sexista
Definition ato discriminante ou preconceituoso em função do sexo relativo ao sexismo

Where the eye mixes sexismo and sexista

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

7 ch
sexismo
7 ch
sexista

Why the eye confuses sexismo with sexista

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sexismo is /sɛ.ˈksiʒ.mu/ while sexista is /sɛ.ˈksiʃ.tɐ/. 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 72870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sexismo is recorded at frequency rank #35,344, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɛ.ˈksiʒ.mu/. sexista is at rank #37,526, tagged as anadj, pronounced /sɛ.ˈksiʃ.tɐ/.

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 72870, this pair ranks #2,924 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sexismo vs sexista

Shared letters: eisx. Private to "sexismo": mo. Private to "sexista": at.

"sexismo" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "sexista" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sexismo ← esxismo · seixsmo · seximso · sexismmo · sexisom · sexissmo · sexsimo · sexxismo
  • sexista ← esxista · seixsta · sexisat · sexissta · sexistta · sexitsa · sexsita · sexxista

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sexismo" for "sexista" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sexismo" is a noun and "sexista" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sexismo" or "sexista" show up more?
"sexismo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,344 in our Portuguese list, against #37,526 for "sexista". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sexismo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sexista" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,924 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sexismo" and "sexista" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sexista vs solista". 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 #2,924 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