abraçarvsagravarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,588
“abraçar” frequency rank
#22,513
“agravar” frequency rank
30101
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abraçar agravar
Definition envolver com os braços ação de tornar mais grave

Where the eye mixes abraçar and agravar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. abraçar and agravar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
abraçar
7 ch
agravar

Look-alike desk: abraçar vs agravar

A purely visual mix-up. abraçar (/ɐ.bɾɐ.ˈsaɾ/) and agravar (/ɐ.ɡɾɐ.ˈvaɾ/) 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 30101, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abraçar is recorded at frequency rank #7,588, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.bɾɐ.ˈsaɾ/. agravar is at rank #22,513, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ɡɾɐ.ˈvaɾ/.

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 30101, this pair ranks #38,352 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abraçar vs agravar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "abraçar": . Private to "agravar": gv.

"abraçar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "agravar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agravaragarvar · aggravar · agraavr · agravarr · agravra · agravvar · agrravar · agrvaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abraçar" and "agravar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.bɾɐ.ˈsaɾ/ versus /ɐ.ɡɾɐ.ˈvaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "abraçar" or "agravar" show up more?
"abraçar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,588 in our Portuguese list, against #22,513 for "agravar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "abraçar" and "agravar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abraçar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agravar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,352 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abraçar" and "agravar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agravar vs atracar". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #38,352 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