arrepiarvsarrepioWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: arrepiar is a verb, arrepio is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“arrepiar” is a verb and “arrepio” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,197
“arrepiar” frequency rank
#20,501
“arrepio” frequency rank
45698
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arrepiar arrepio
Definition fazer ao arrepio, em sentido contrário ao natural tremor passageiro causado por frio ou medo

Where the eye mixes arrepiar and arrepio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
arrepiar
7 ch
arrepio

Visual trap between arrepiar and arrepio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arrepiar is /ɐ.Rɨ.ˈpjaɾ/ while arrepio is /ɐ.Rɨ.ˈpi.u/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arrepiar is recorded at frequency rank #25,197, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.Rɨ.ˈpjaɾ/. arrepio is at rank #20,501, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.Rɨ.ˈpi.u/.

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 45698, this pair ranks #19,701 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arrepiar vs arrepio

Shared letters: aeipr. Private to "arrepiar": -. Private to "arrepio": o.

"arrepiar" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC  ·  "arrepio" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arrepiararepiar · arerpiar · arreipar · arrepair · arrepiarr · arrepira · arreppiar · arrpeiar
  • arrepioarepio · arerpio · arreipo · arrepoi · arreppio · arrpeio · rarepio

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arrepiar" and "arrepio" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arrepiar" is a verb and "arrepio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "arrepiar" or "arrepio" show up more?
"arrepio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,501 in our Portuguese list, against #25,197 for "arrepiar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "arrepiar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arrepio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,701 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arrepiar" and "arrepio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abreviar vs arrepiar". 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 #19,701 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