terceiravsterreiroTell them apart

Quick tell: terceira is a adjective, terreiro is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,661
“terceira” frequency rank
#19,572
“terreiro” frequency rank
21233
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terceira terreiro
Definition feminino de terceiro grande espaço de terra plano

Letter map: terceira vs terreiro

Shared letters muted; letters that set terceira and terreiro apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. terceira and terreiro follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
terceira
8 ch
terreiro

Part-of-speech tell for terceira / terreiro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: terceira is anadjective and terreiroanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terceira is recorded at frequency rank #1,661, classified as anadj, pronounced /tɨɾ.ˈsɐj.ɾɐ/. terreiro is at rank #19,572, tagged as anoun.

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 21233, this pair ranks #49,088 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of terceira vs terreiro

Shared letters: eirt. Private to "terceira": ac. Private to "terreiro": o.

"terceira" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "terreiro" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terceira ← etrceira · tecreira · tercceira · terceiar · terceirra · terceria · terciera · terecira
  • terreiro ← etrreiro · tereiro · tereriro · terreior · terreirro · terrerio · terriero · trereiro

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "terceira" and "terreiro" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "terceira" is an adjective and "terreiro" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "terceira" or "terreiro" show up more?
"terceira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,661 in our Portuguese list, against #19,572 for "terreiro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "terceira" and "terreiro".

  • Full dictionary entry for "terceira" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "terreiro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,088 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terceira" and "terreiro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terreiro vs terreno". 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 #49,088 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