sabotar
/sɐ.bu.ˈtaɾ/
The verdict
“sabotar” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #27,265 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a verb.
- #27,265
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - alterar criminosamente algo
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sabotar |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /sɐ.bu.ˈtaɾ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #27,265 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sabotar” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for sabotar is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɐ.bu.ˈtaɾ/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,265 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "alterar criminosamente algo".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for sabotar, with forms such as "asbotar", "sabbotar", and "saboatr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "saltar", "sabor", "saborear", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Portuguese form is sabotar, spelled S-A-B-O-T-A-R.
Definition
- 1alterar criminosamente algo
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asbotar,sabbotar,saboatr,sabotarr,sabotra,sabottar,sabtoar,saobtar,sbaotar,ssabotar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sabotar - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sabotar"?
What does "sabotar" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sabotar"?
How do you pronounce "sabotar"?
What language does "sabotar" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sabotar”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is S-A-B-O-T-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɐ.bu.ˈtaɾ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “saltar” - see the side-by-side comparison. sabotar vs saltar
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.