alçarvsaplacarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,259
“alçar” frequency rank
#43,760
“aplacar” frequency rank
87019
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alçar aplacar
Definition colocar mais alto, altear, erguer reduzir a força ou a intensidade de; acalmar, atenuar, minorar

Where the eye mixes alçar and aplacar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. alçar runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against aplacar's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
alçar
7 ch
aplacar

Visual trap between alçar and aplacar

A purely visual mix-up. alçar (/aɫ.ˈsaɾ/) and aplacar (/ɐ.plɐ.ˈkaɾ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87019, 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/. aplacar is at rank #43,760, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.plɐ.ˈkaɾ/.

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 87019, this pair ranks #525 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alçar vs aplacar

Shared letters: alr. Private to "alçar": ç. Private to "aplacar": cp.

"alçar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "aplacar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aplacaralpacar · apalcar · aplaacr · aplacarr · aplaccar · aplacra · aplcaar · apllacar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "alçar" and "aplacar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/aɫ.ˈsaɾ/ versus /ɐ.plɐ.ˈkaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alçar" or "aplacar"?
"alçar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,259 in our Portuguese list, against #43,760 for "aplacar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alçar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aplacar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #525 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alçar" and "aplacar" 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 #525 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