afastarvsajustarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,955
“afastar” frequency rank
#12,602
“ajustar” frequency rank
16557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature afastar ajustar
Definition transitivo: fazer pequeno conserto ou ajuste numa peça de vestuário

Where the eye mixes afastar and ajustar

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

7 ch
afastar
7 ch
ajustar

Look-alike desk: afastar vs ajustar

A purely visual mix-up. afastar (/ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/) and ajustar (/ɐ.ʒuʃ.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 16557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

afastar is recorded at frequency rank #3,955, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/. ajustar is at rank #12,602, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ʒuʃ.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 16557, this pair ranks #54,936 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of afastar vs ajustar

Shared letters: arst. Private to "afastar": f. Private to "ajustar": ju.

"afastar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "ajustar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • afastar ← aafstar · afasatr · afasstar · afastarr · afastra · afasttar · afatsar · affastar
  • ajustar ← ajjustar · ajsutar · ajusatr · ajusstar · ajustarr · ajustra · ajusttar · ajutsar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "afastar" and "ajustar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐ.ʒuʃ.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "afastar" or "ajustar" show up more?
"afastar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,955 in our Portuguese list, against #12,602 for "ajustar". 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 "afastar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ajustar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,936 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "afastar" and "ajustar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "afastar vs alastrar". 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 #54,936 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