ararvsarcarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,176
“arar” frequency rank
#19,058
“arcar” frequency rank
65234
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arar arcar
Definition lavrar (a terra) com arado arquear

Where the eye mixes arar and arcar

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

4 ch
arar
5 ch
arcar

Visual trap between arar and arcar

A purely visual mix-up. arar (/ɐ.ˈɾaɾ/) and arcar (/ɐɾ.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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65234, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arar is recorded at frequency rank #46,176, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈɾaɾ/. arcar is at rank #19,058, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐɾ.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 65234, this pair ranks #5,468 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arar vs arcar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "arar": -. Private to "arcar": c.

"arar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "arcar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arar ← aarr · ararr · arra · arrar · raar
  • arcar ← acrar · aracr · arcarr · arccar · arcra · arrcar · racar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arar" and "arcar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈɾaɾ/ versus /ɐɾ.ˈkaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "arar" or "arcar"?
"arcar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,058 in our Portuguese list, against #46,176 for "arar". 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 "arar" and "arcar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arcar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,468 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arar" and "arcar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arar vs atar". 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 #5,468 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