agivságilTell them apart

Quick tell: agi is a verb, ágil is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agi” is a verb and “ágil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,311
“agi” frequency rank
#17,177
“ágil” frequency rank
53488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agi ágil
Definition agir, proceder ligeiro, pronto, veloz

Where the eye mixes agi and ágil

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. agi runs 3 letters (VCV) against ágil's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
agi
4 ch
ágil

Visual trap between agi and ágil

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agi is /ˈa.ɡi/ while ágil is /ˈa.ʒiɫ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agi is recorded at frequency rank #36,311, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈa.ɡi/. ágil is at rank #17,177, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈa.ʒiɫ/.

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 53488, this pair ranks #11,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of agi vs ágil

Shared letters: gi. Private to "agi": a. Private to "ágil": lá.

"agi" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ágil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agi" for "ágil" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agi" is a verb and "ágil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "agi" or "ágil"?
"ágil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,177 in our Portuguese list, against #36,311 for "agi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ágil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,985 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agi" and "ágil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs agi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #11,985 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