por
Portuguese, preposition
por is spelled P-O-R (3 letters) and appears 7,586 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 18th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Por is a Portuguese preposition meaning “for (on behalf of)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With an accent, pôr is a different word: “to put; to place”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “exprime, entre outras relações, causa, modo, tempo, meio, lugar, qualidade, estado, preço, etc”.
What does por mean in English?
preposition
- 1
for (on behalf of)
Faça isso por mim.
- 2
for (in order to obtain)
Espero por uma resposta.
- 3
for (over a period of time)
Esperei por uma semana.
- 4
for (indicates something given in an exchange)
Ela deu sua bicicleta pela minha.
- 5
by (through the action or presence of)
A manutenção é feita por engenheiros.
- 6
by (indicates the creator of a work)
Os livros por Tolkien são ótimos.
- 7
by (using the rules or logic of)
Pela lei, deveríamos estar presos.
- 8
times, by, multiplied by
oito por sete
verb
- 1
to put; to place
- 2
to get (to position oneself into a given state)
- 3
to go
- 4
to lay (to produce and deposit an egg)
- 5
(of a celestial body) to set (to go below the horizon)
- 6
to put on; to wear (to start to use an item of clothing)
- 7
to make; to get (to cause to be in a given state)
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
preposition: 1. exprime, entre outras relações, causa, modo, tempo, meio, lugar, qualidade, estado, preço, etc
noun: 1. ocaso
verb: 1. fazer com que algo se estabeleça num lugar 2. botar ovos
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of por
- ponho first-person present singular
- pus first-person preterite singular
- posto participle past
- pores infinitive second-person singular
- pormos first-person infinitive plural
- pordes infinitive plural second-person
- porem infinitive plural third-person
- pondo gerund
- postos masculine participle past
- posta feminine participle past
- postas feminine participle past
- pões indicative present second-person
- põe indicative present singular
- pomos first-person indicative plural
- pondes indicative plural present
- põem indicative plural present
- punha first-person imperfect indicative
- punhas imperfect indicative second-person
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to por
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is por in Portuguese?
por appears 7,586 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).