Which to use
“skin” and “sky” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,716
- “skin” frequency rank
- #7,084
- “sky” frequency rank
- 25800
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | skin | sky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pele | céu |
Where the eye mixes skin and sky
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses skin with sky
A purely visual mix-up. skin (/ˈskin/) and sky (/skaɪ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
skin is recorded at frequency rank #18,716, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈskin/. sky is at rank #7,084, tagged as anoun, pronounced /skaɪ/.
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 25800, this pair ranks #43,443 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of skin vs sky
Shared letters: ks. Private to "skin": in. Private to "sky": y.
"skin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "sky" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- skin ← ksin · sikn · skinn · skkin · skni · sskin
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "skin" for "sky" ever safe?
Which is more common, "skin" or "sky"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "skin" and "sky" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "skin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,443 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "skin" and "sky" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "skin vs slip". 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 #43,443 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.