alisarvsavisarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,330
“alisar” frequency rank
#3,662
“avisar” frequency rank
44992
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alisar avisar
Definition tornar liso dar aviso

Where the eye mixes alisar and avisar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. alisar and avisar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
alisar
6 ch
avisar

Visual trap between alisar and avisar

A purely visual mix-up. alisar (/ɐ.li.ˈzaɾ/) and avisar (/ɐ.vi.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 a single letter - l in “alisar” becomes v in “avisar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alisar is recorded at frequency rank #41,330, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.li.ˈzaɾ/. avisar is at rank #3,662, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.vi.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 44992, this pair ranks #20,437 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alisar vs avisar

Shared letters: airs. Private to "alisar": l. Private to "avisar": v.

"alisar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "avisar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alisar ← ailsar · aliasr · alisarr · alisra · alissar · allisar · alsiar · laisar
  • avisar ← aivsar · aviasr · avisarr · avisra · avissar · avsiar · avvisar · vaisar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alisar" for "avisar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.li.ˈzaɾ/ versus /ɐ.vi.ˈzaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alisar" or "avisar"?
"avisar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,662 in our Portuguese list, against #41,330 for "alisar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alisar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avisar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,437 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alisar" and "avisar" 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 #20,437 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