terçovstérmicoTell them apart

Quick tell: terço is a noun, térmico is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,716
“terço” frequency rank
#19,585
“térmico” frequency rank
26301
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terço térmico
Definition uma das subdivisões do rosário cristão relativo ou associado a calor ou temperatura

Letter map: terço vs térmico

Shared letters muted; letters that set terço and térmico apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
terço
7 ch
térmico

Part-of-speech tell for terço / térmico

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: terço is anoun and térmicoanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terço is recorded at frequency rank #6,716, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈteɾ.su/. térmico is at rank #19,585, tagged as anadj.

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 26301, this pair ranks #42,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of terço vs térmico

Shared letters: ort. Private to "terço": . Private to "térmico": cimé.

"terço" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "térmico" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "terço" for "térmico" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "terço" is a noun and "térmico" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "terço" or "térmico"?
"terço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,716 in our Portuguese list, against #19,585 for "térmico". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "terço" vs "térmico" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "térmico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terço" and "térmico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tengo vs terço". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,881 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