vacilo
Portuguese, noun/vaˈsi.lu/
vacilo is spelled V-A-C-I-L-O (6 letters) and appears about once in every 3 million words in written Portuguese, the 52,632nd most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Vacilo is a Portuguese masculine noun meaning “an instance of hesitation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first-person singular present indicative of vacilar. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “ato ou efeito de vacilar”.
What does vacilo mean in English?
noun
- 1
Brazilcolloquialmasculinean instance of hesitation
Dei um vacilo e perdi minha chance.
- 2
Brazilcolloquialmasculinea screwup, a mistake
Me desculpa, cara. O vacilo foi meu.
verb
- 1
Brazilcolloquialfirst-person singular present indicative of vacilar
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
noun: 1. ato ou efeito de vacilar 2. estado daquilo que vacila 3. oscilação 4. perplexidade
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 vacilo
- vacilos plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce vacilo?
- Brazil /vaˈsi.lu/
- Portugal /vɐˈsi.lu/
- Portugal /bɐˈsi.lu/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to vacilo
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is vacilo in Portuguese?
vacilo appears about once in every 3 million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).