acusarvsavisarConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,117
“acusar” frequency rank
#3,662
“avisar” frequency rank
13779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acusar avisar
Definition culpar, incriminar dar aviso

Where the eye mixes acusar and avisar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. acusar and avisar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
acusar
6 ch
avisar

Visual trap between acusar and avisar

A purely visual mix-up. acusar (/ɐ.ku.ˈzaɾ/) and avisar (/ɐ.vi.ˈzaɾ/) 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 13779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acusar is recorded at frequency rank #10,117, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ku.ˈzaɾ/. avisar is at rank #3,662, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.vi.ˈzaɾ/.

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 13779, this pair ranks #58,454 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acusar vs avisar

Shared letters: ars. Private to "acusar": cu. Private to "avisar": iv.

"acusar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "avisar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acusar ← accusar · acsuar · acuasr · acusarr · acusra · acussar · aucsar
  • avisar ← aivsar · aviasr · avisarr · avisra · avissar · avsiar · avvisar · vaisar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acusar" and "avisar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ku.ˈzaɾ/ versus /ɐ.vi.ˈzaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acusar" or "avisar"?
"avisar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,662 in our Portuguese list, against #10,117 for "acusar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acusar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avisar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,454 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acusar" and "avisar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acusar vs alisar". 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 #58,454 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