amarvsamargoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: amar is a verb, amargo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“amar” is a verb and “amargo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,349
“amar” frequency rank
#11,579
“amargo” frequency rank
13928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amar amargo
Definition transitivo direto que amarga, que possui um sabor áspero e por vezes desagradável, como o do café puro, do quinino, do fel etc.

Letter map: amar vs amargo

Shared letters muted; letters that set amar and amargo apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
amar
6 ch
amargo

Part-of-speech tell for amar / amargo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: amar is averb and amargoanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “amar” sits inside “amargo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amar is recorded at frequency rank #2,349, classified as averb. amargo is at rank #11,579, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.ˈmaɾ.ɡu/.

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 13928, this pair ranks #58,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of amar vs amargo

Shared letters: amr. Private to "amar": -. Private to "amargo": go.

"amar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "amargo" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amaraamr · amarr · ammar · maar
  • amargoaamrgo · amagro · amarggo · amarog · amarrgo · ammargo · amrago · maargo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "amar" and "amargo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "amar" is a verb and "amargo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "amar" vs "amargo" - which ranks higher?
"amar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,349 in our Portuguese list, against #11,579 for "amargo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "amar" vs "amargo" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "amar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "amargo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amar" and "amargo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amargo vs amargos". 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 #58,287 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