terceirovsterreiroWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,228
“terceiro” frequency rank
#19,572
“terreiro” frequency rank
20800
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terceiro terreiro
Definition refere-se àquele que ocupa a posição terciária em uma série; o que vem depois do segundo grande espaço de terra plano

Letter map: terceiro vs terreiro

Shared letters muted; letters that set terceiro and terreiro apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. terceiro 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
terceiro
8 ch
terreiro

Role in the sentence - terceiro and terreiro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: terceiro is anadjective and terreiroanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - c in “terceiro” becomes r in “terreiro”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terceiro is recorded at frequency rank #1,228, classified as anadj. 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 20800, this pair ranks #49,625 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of terceiro vs terreiro

Shared letters: eiort. Private to "terceiro": c. Private to "terreiro": -.

"terceiro" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "terreiro" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terceiro ← etrceiro · tecreiro · tercceiro · terceior · terceirro · tercerio · terciero · tereciro
  • terreiro ← etrreiro · tereiro · tereriro · terreior · terreirro · terrerio · terriero · trereiro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "terceiro" for "terreiro" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "terceiro" is an adjective and "terreiro" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "terceiro" or "terreiro"?
"terceiro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,228 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "terceiro" 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 #49,625 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terceiro" 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 #49,625 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