sequestrar
Portuguese, verb
sequestrar is spelled S-E-Q-U-E-S-T-R-A-R (10 letters) and appears 2.7 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 18,535th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Sequestrar is a Portuguese verb meaning “to kidnap; to abduct (to seize and detain a person unlawfully)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a diaeresis, seqüestrar is a different word: “pre-reform spelling (used until 1990 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal)…”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “privar alguém de sua liberdade, mantendo-o enclausurado, algemado, amordaçado ou sob custódia, em situação…”.
What does sequestrar mean in English?
verb
- 1
to kidnap; to abduct (to seize and detain a person unlawfully)
verb
- 1
pre-reform spelling (used until 1990 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal) of sequestrar; may still occur as a sporadic misspelling
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
verb: 1. o mesmo que sequestrar
verb: 1. privar alguém de sua liberdade, mantendo-o enclausurado, algemado, amordaçado ou sob custódia, em situação que não uma prisão prevista e executada conforme a lei 2. ilegalmente ou mediante violência, força ou ameaça, apoderar-se de 3. em cumprimento de decisão judicial, apreender qualquer bem como garantia de pagamento de dívida; arrestar, penhorar 4. afastar(-se), distanciar(-se), isolar(-se)
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 sequestrar
- sequestro first-person present singular
- sequestrei first-person preterite singular
- sequestrado participle past
- sequestrares infinitive second-person singular
- sequestrarmos first-person infinitive plural
- sequestrardes infinitive plural second-person
- sequestrarem infinitive plural third-person
- sequestrando gerund
- sequestrados masculine participle past
- sequestrada feminine participle past
- sequestradas feminine participle past
- sequestras indicative present second-person
- sequestra indicative present singular
- sequestramos first-person indicative plural
- sequestrais indicative plural present
- sequestram indicative plural present
- sequestrava first-person imperfect indicative
- sequestravas 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 sequestrar
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is sequestrar in Portuguese?
sequestrar appears 2.7 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).