açãovsazarConfusable pair

Quick tell: ação is a intj, azar is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ação” is an intj and “azar” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#594
“ação” frequency rank
#6,840
“azar” frequency rank
7434
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ação azar
Definition expressa a grupo de participantes envolvidos em uma interpretação e sua gravação, que dêem início à sua atividade coordenada e conjuntamente má sorte

Where the eye mixes ação and azar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
ação
4 ch
azar

Why the eye confuses ação with azar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ação is /ɐ.ˈsɐ̃u̯ while azar is /ɐ.zaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7434, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ação is recorded at frequency rank #594, classified as anintj, pronounced /ɐ.ˈsɐ̃u̯. azar is at rank #6,840, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.zaɾ/.

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 7434, this pair ranks #66,695 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ação vs azar

Shared letters: a. Private to "ação": oãç. Private to "azar": rz.

"ação" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "azar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • azaraazr · azarr · azra · azzar · zaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ação" and "azar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ação" is an intj and "azar" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ação" or "azar"?
"ação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #594 in our Portuguese list, against #6,840 for "azar". 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 "ação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "azar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,695 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ação" and "azar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs azar". 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 #66,695 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