sulcovssurtoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,610
“sulco” frequency rank
#9,267
“surto” frequency rank
54877
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sulco surto
Definition rego variação repentina da corrente num circuito elétrico

Where the eye mixes sulco and surto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sulco and surto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
sulco
5 ch
surto

Why the eye confuses sulco with surto

A purely visual mix-up. sulco (/ˈsuɫ.ku/) and surto (/ˈsuɾ.tu/) 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 54877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sulco is recorded at frequency rank #45,610, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsuɫ.ku/. surto is at rank #9,267, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsuɾ.tu/.

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 54877, this pair ranks #10,976 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sulco vs surto

Shared letters: osu. Private to "sulco": cl. Private to "surto": rt.

"sulco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "surto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sulco ← sluco · ssulco · suclo · sulcco · sullco · suloc · uslco
  • surto ← sruto · ssurto · surot · surrto · surtto · sutro · usrto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sulco" and "surto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsuɫ.ku/ versus /ˈsuɾ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sulco" or "surto"?
"surto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,267 in our Portuguese list, against #45,610 for "sulco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sulco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "surto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,976 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sulco" and "surto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sueño vs sulco". 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 #10,976 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