aliarvsalisarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,190
“aliar” frequency rank
#41,330
“alisar” frequency rank
61520
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aliar alisar
Definition fazer ligação de tornar liso

Where the eye mixes aliar and alisar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
aliar
6 ch
alisar

Why the eye confuses aliar with alisar

A purely visual mix-up. aliar (/ɐ.ˈljaɾ/) 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 61520, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aliar is recorded at frequency rank #20,190, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈljaɾ/. 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 61520, this pair ranks #7,100 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aliar vs alisar

Shared letters: ailr. Private to "aliar": -. Private to "alisar": s.

"aliar" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "alisar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aliarailar · alair · aliarr · alira · alliar · laiar
  • alisarailsar · aliasr · alisarr · alisra · alissar · allisar · alsiar · laisar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aliar" for "alisar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈljaɾ/ versus /ɐ.li.ˈzaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aliar" vs "alisar" - which ranks higher?
"aliar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,190 in our Portuguese list, against #41,330 for "alisar". 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 "aliar" and "alisar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aliar" 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 #7,100 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aliar" and "alisar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alçar vs alisar". 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 #7,100 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