tergiversar
The verdict
“tergiversar” is uncommon Portuguese (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency Portuguese
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - voltar as costas
Corpus desk
Index PT-tergiversar · tergiversar · Portuguese
tergiversar · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tergiversar |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Cauda longa: rank de “tergiversar” em português
Rare enough to double-check
tergiversar is uncommon Portuguese outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tergiversar, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Portuguese form is tergiversar, spelled T-E-R-G-I-V-E-R-S-A-R.
Definition
- 1voltar as costas
- 2usar de evasivas, de rodeios, de subterfúgios
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how tergiversar appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Indagada a respeito, a autoridade tergiversou.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.