tristevsturistaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,203
“triste” frequency rank
#10,624
“turista” frequency rank
11827
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature triste turista
Definition afetado por infelicidade ou dor pessoa que viaja para se recrear

Letter map: triste vs turista

Shared letters muted; letters that set triste and turista apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. triste runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against turista's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
triste
7 ch
turista

Grammar separator: triste vs turista

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: triste is anadjective and turistaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

triste is recorded at frequency rank #1,203, classified as anadj. turista is at rank #10,624, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tu.ˈɾiʃ.tɐ/.

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 11827, this pair ranks #60,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of triste vs turista

Shared letters: irst. Private to "triste": e. Private to "turista": au.

"triste" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "turista" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • triste ← rtiste · tirste · triset · trisste · tristte · tritse · trriste · trsite
  • turista ← truista · tturista · tuirsta · turisat · turissta · turistta · turitsa · turrista

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "triste" and "turista" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "triste" is an adjective and "turista" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "triste" or "turista"?
"triste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,203 in our Portuguese list, against #10,624 for "turista". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "triste" and "turista".

  • Full dictionary entry for "triste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "turista" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "triste" and "turista" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "traste vs triste". 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 #60,933 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