Which to use
“adoção” is a noun and “adotar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,487
- “adoção” frequency rank
- #6,258
- “adotar” frequency rank
- 11745
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | adoção | adotar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ação ou resultado de adotar, de aceitar (alguém ou algo) | assumir para si a responsabilidade jurídica de criar (criança ou adolescente): |
Where the eye mixes adoção and adotar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. adoção (VCVCVV) and adotar (VCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between adoção and adotar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: adoção is /a.doˈsɐ̃w̃/ while adotar is /ɐ.dɔ.ˈtaɾ/, /ɐ.dɔ.ˈta/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
adoção is recorded at frequency rank #5,487, classified as anoun, pronounced /a.doˈsɐ̃w̃/. adotar is at rank #6,258, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.dɔ.ˈtaɾ/, /ɐ.dɔ.ˈta/.
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 11745, this pair ranks #61,047 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of adoção vs adotar
Shared letters: ado. Private to "adoção": ãç. Private to "adotar": rt.
"adoção" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV · "adotar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- adotar ← addotar · adoatr · adotarr · adotra · adottar · adtoar · aodtar · daotar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "adoção" for "adotar" ever safe?
Frequency check: "adoção" vs "adotar" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "adoção" and "adotar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "adoção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "adotar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,047 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "adoção" and "adotar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adotar vs arrotar". 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 #61,047 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.