agitarvsanimarConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#16,211
“agitar” frequency rank
#10,646
“animar” frequency rank
26857
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agitar animar
Definition abanar, sacudir dar animação a

Where the eye mixes agitar and animar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
agitar
6 ch
animar

Visual trap between agitar and animar

A purely visual mix-up. agitar (/ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/) and animar (/ɐ.ni.ˈmaɾ/) 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 26857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agitar is recorded at frequency rank #16,211, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/. animar is at rank #10,646, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ni.ˈmaɾ/.

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 26857, this pair ranks #42,224 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agitar vs animar

Shared letters: air. Private to "agitar": gt. Private to "animar": mn.

"agitar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "animar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agitaraggitar · agiatr · agitarr · agitra · agittar · agtiar · aigtar · gaitar
  • animarainmar · aniamr · animarr · animmar · animra · anmiar · annimar · naimar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "agitar" and "animar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐ.ni.ˈmaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "agitar" vs "animar" - which ranks higher?
"animar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,646 in our Portuguese list, against #16,211 for "agitar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "agitar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "animar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,224 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agitar" and "animar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agitador vs agitar". 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 #42,224 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