agravarvsagravoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: agravar is a verb, agravo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agravar” is a verb and “agravo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,513
“agravar” frequency rank
#35,421
“agravo” frequency rank
57934
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agravar agravo
Definition ação de tornar mais grave recurso interposto num processo judiciário visando reformar decisão interlocutória proferida pelo juiz de primeira instância

Where the eye mixes agravar and agravo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. agravar runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against agravo's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
agravar
6 ch
agravo

Why the eye confuses agravar with agravo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agravar is /ɐ.ɡɾɐ.ˈvaɾ/ while agravo is /ɐ.ˈɡɾa.vu/. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agravar is recorded at frequency rank #22,513, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ɡɾɐ.ˈvaɾ/. agravo is at rank #35,421, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈɡɾa.vu/.

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 57934, this pair ranks #9,035 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of agravar vs agravo

Shared letters: agrv. Private to "agravar": -. Private to "agravo": o.

"agravar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "agravo" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agravaragarvar · aggravar · agraavr · agravarr · agravra · agravvar · agrravar · agrvaar
  • agravoagarvo · aggravo · agraov · agravvo · agrravo · agrvao · argavo · garavo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "agravar" and "agravo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agravar" is a verb and "agravo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "agravar" or "agravo" show up more?
"agravar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,513 in our Portuguese list, against #35,421 for "agravo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "agravar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agravo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,035 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agravar" and "agravo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agravo vs arado". 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 #9,035 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