tourismvsturismoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,621
“tourism” frequency rank
#2,212
“turismo” frequency rank
46833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tourism turismo
Definition turismo deslocamento voluntário de pessoa por período de tempo igual ou superior a vinte e quatro horas para local diferente da sua residência e do seu trabalho sem este ter por motivação a obtenção de lucro

Where the eye mixes tourism and turismo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tourism (CVVCVCC) and turismo (CVCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
tourism
7 ch
turismo

Visual trap between tourism and turismo

A purely visual mix-up. tourism (/ˈtɔ:rɪzəm/) and turismo (/tu.ˈɾiʒ.mu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tourism is recorded at frequency rank #44,621, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɔ:rɪzəm/. turismo is at rank #2,212, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tu.ˈɾiʒ.mu/.

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 46833, this pair ranks #18,472 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tourism vs turismo

Shared letters: imorstu. Private to "tourism": -. Private to "turismo": -.

"tourism" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "turismo" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tourism ← oturism · toruism · touirsm · tourims · tourismm · tourissm · tourrism · toursim
  • turismo ← truismo · tturismo · tuirsmo · turimso · turismmo · turisom · turissmo · turrismo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tourism" and "turismo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈtɔ:rɪzəm/ versus /tu.ˈɾiʒ.mu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tourism" vs "turismo" - which ranks higher?
"turismo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,212 in our Portuguese list, against #44,621 for "tourism". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tourism" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "turismo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,472 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tourism" and "turismo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "turismo vs turista". 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 #18,472 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