abdicaçãovsaplicaçãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“abdicação” and “aplicação” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,826
“abdicação” frequency rank
#2,706
“aplicação” frequency rank
35532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abdicação aplicação
Definition renúncia ato de aplicar

Where the eye mixes abdicação and aplicação

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. abdicação and aplicação follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
abdicação
9 ch
aplicação

Why the eye confuses abdicação with aplicação

A purely visual mix-up. abdicação (/ɐb.di.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and aplicação (/ɐ.pli.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abdicação is recorded at frequency rank #32,826, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐb.di.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. aplicação is at rank #2,706, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.pli.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 35532, this pair ranks #31,520 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abdicação vs aplicação

Shared letters: acioãç. Private to "abdicação": bd. Private to "aplicação": lp.

"abdicação" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVV  ·  "aplicação" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "abdicação" and "aplicação" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɐb.di.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /ɐ.pli.kɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "abdicação" or "aplicação" show up more?
"aplicação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,706 in our Portuguese list, against #32,826 for "abdicação". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abdicação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aplicação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,520 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abdicação" and "aplicação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alocação vs aplicação". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #31,520 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list