agitarvsatirarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,211
“agitar” frequency rank
#6,264
“atirar” frequency rank
22475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agitar atirar
Definition abanar, sacudir lançar um projétil contra um alvo ou pessoa

Where the eye mixes agitar and atirar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. agitar and atirar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
agitar
6 ch
atirar

Why the eye confuses agitar with atirar

A purely visual mix-up. agitar (/ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/) and atirar (/ɐ.ti.ˈɾaɾ/) 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 22475, 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/. atirar is at rank #6,264, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ti.ˈɾaɾ/.

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 22475, this pair ranks #47,571 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agitar vs atirar

Shared letters: airt. Private to "agitar": g. Private to "atirar": -.

"agitar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "atirar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agitar ← aggitar · agiatr · agitarr · agitra · agittar · agtiar · aigtar · gaitar
  • atirar ← aitrar · atiarr · atirarr · atirra · atirrar · attirar · tairar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "agitar" and "atirar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐ.ti.ˈɾaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "agitar" vs "atirar" - which ranks higher?
"atirar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,264 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "agitar" and "atirar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agitar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atirar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,571 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agitar" and "atirar" 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 #47,571 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