acatarvsagitarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,036
“acatar” frequency rank
#16,211
“agitar” frequency rank
48247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acatar agitar
Definition respeitar, venerar abanar, sacudir

Where the eye mixes acatar and agitar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
acatar
6 ch
agitar

Visual trap between acatar and agitar

A purely visual mix-up. acatar (/ɐ.kɐ.ˈtaɾ/) and agitar (/ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/) 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 48247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acatar is recorded at frequency rank #32,036, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.kɐ.ˈtaɾ/. agitar is at rank #16,211, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/.

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 48247, this pair ranks #16,950 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of acatar vs agitar

Shared letters: art. Private to "acatar": c. Private to "agitar": gi.

"acatar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "agitar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acataraactar · acaatr · acatarr · acatra · acattar · accatar · actaar · caatar
  • agitaraggitar · agiatr · agitarr · agitra · agittar · agtiar · aigtar · gaitar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acatar" for "agitar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.kɐ.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acatar" or "agitar"?
"agitar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,211 in our Portuguese list, against #32,036 for "acatar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acatar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agitar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,950 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acatar" and "agitar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acatar vs atar". 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 #16,950 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