tergiversar
Portuguese, verb/teʁ.ʒi.veʁˈsa(ʁ)/
tergiversar is spelled T-E-R-G-I-V-E-R-S-A-R (11 letters) and appears about once in every 74 million words in written Portuguese, the 236,506th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tergiversar is a Portuguese verb meaning “to tergiversate (to evade an issue)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “voltar as costas”.
What does tergiversar mean in English?
verb
- 1
to tergiversate (to evade an issue)
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
verb: 1. voltar as costas 2. usar de evasivas, de rodeios, de subterfúgios
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 tergiversar
- tergiverso first-person present singular
- tergiversei first-person preterite singular
- tergiversado participle past
- tergiversares infinitive second-person singular
- tergiversarmos first-person infinitive plural
- tergiversardes infinitive plural second-person
- tergiversarem infinitive plural third-person
- tergiversando gerund
- tergiversados masculine participle past
- tergiversada feminine participle past
- tergiversadas feminine participle past
- tergiversas indicative present second-person
- tergiversa indicative present singular
- tergiversamos first-person indicative plural
- tergiversais indicative plural present
- tergiversam indicative plural present
- tergiversava first-person imperfect indicative
- tergiversavas imperfect indicative second-person
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce tergiversar?
- Brazil /teʁ.ʒi.veʁˈsa(ʁ)/
- Brazil [teɦ.ʒi.vehˈsa(h)]
- /teɾ.ʒi.veɾˈsa(ɾ)/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to tergiversar
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is tergiversar in Portuguese?
tergiversar appears about once in every 74 million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).