alçarvsalisarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,259
“alçar” frequency rank
#41,330
“alisar” frequency rank
84589
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alçar alisar
Definition colocar mais alto, altear, erguer tornar liso

Where the eye mixes alçar and alisar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. alçar runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against alisar's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
alçar
6 ch
alisar

Why the eye confuses alçar with alisar

A purely visual mix-up. alçar (/aɫ.ˈsaɾ/) and alisar (/ɐ.li.ˈzaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84589, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alçar is recorded at frequency rank #43,259, classified as averb, pronounced /aɫ.ˈsaɾ/. alisar is at rank #41,330, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.li.ˈzaɾ/.

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 84589, this pair ranks #770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alçar vs alisar

Shared letters: alr. Private to "alçar": ç. Private to "alisar": is.

"alçar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "alisar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alisar ← ailsar · aliasr · alisarr · alisra · alissar · allisar · alsiar · laisar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alçar" for "alisar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/aɫ.ˈsaɾ/ versus /ɐ.li.ˈzaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "alçar" vs "alisar" - which ranks higher?
"alisar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,330 in our Portuguese list, against #43,259 for "alçar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "alçar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alisar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #770 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alçar" and "alisar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alçar vs alce". 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 #770 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