Which to use
“ágil” is an adjective and “água” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,177
- “ágil” frequency rank
- #254
- “água” frequency rank
- 17431
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ágil | água |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ligeiro, pronto, veloz | substância (H₂O) líquida e incolor, insípida e inodora, essencial para a vida da maior parte dos organismos vivos e excelente solvente para muitas outras substâncias; óxido de hidrogênio |
Where the eye mixes ágil and água
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ágil vs água
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ágil is /ˈa.ʒiɫ/ while água is /ˈa.gwɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ágil is recorded at frequency rank #17,177, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈa.ʒiɫ/. água is at rank #254, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.gwɐ/.
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 17431, this pair ranks #53,817 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ágil vs água
Shared letters: gá. Private to "ágil": il. Private to "água": au.
"ágil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "água" · 4 letters · shape VCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ágil" and "água" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ágil" or "água" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ágil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "água" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #53,817 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ágil" and "água" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acid vs ágil". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #53,817 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.