sintomavssistemaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,459
“sintoma” frequency rank
#272
“sistema” frequency rank
15731
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sintoma sistema
Definition sinal conjunto de elementos, concretos ou abstratos, relacionados entre si

Where the eye mixes sintoma and sistema

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

7 ch
sintoma
7 ch
sistema

Visual trap between sintoma and sistema

A purely visual mix-up. sintoma (/sĩ.ˈto.mɐ/) and sistema (/siʃ.ˈte.mɐ/, /sis.ˈte.mɐ/ ouvir ^(fonte ?)) 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 15731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sintoma is recorded at frequency rank #15,459, classified as anoun, pronounced /sĩ.ˈto.mɐ/. sistema is at rank #272, tagged as anoun, pronounced /siʃ.ˈte.mɐ/, /sis.ˈte.mɐ/ ouvir ^(fonte ?).

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 15731, this pair ranks #56,015 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sintoma vs sistema

Shared letters: aimst. Private to "sintoma": no. Private to "sistema": e.

"sintoma" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "sistema" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sintoma ← isntoma · sinntoma · sinotma · sintmoa · sintoam · sintomma · sinttoma · sitnoma
  • sistema ← isstema · sisetma · sisstema · sisteam · sistemma · sistmea · sisttema · sitsema

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sintoma" for "sistema" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/sĩ.ˈto.mɐ/ versus /siʃ.ˈte.mɐ/, /sis.ˈte.mɐ/ ouvir ^(fonte ?)) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sintoma" or "sistema" show up more?
"sistema" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #272 in our Portuguese list, against #15,459 for "sintoma". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sintoma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sistema" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,015 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sintoma" and "sistema" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sintoma vs sintonia". 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 #56,015 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