banharvsbasearWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,977
“banhar” frequency rank
#23,575
“basear” frequency rank
50552
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature banhar basear
Definition mergulhar em líquido, cobrir de líquido fundamentar

Where the eye mixes banhar and basear

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. banhar (CVCCVC) and basear (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
banhar
6 ch
basear

Visual trap between banhar and basear

A purely visual mix-up. banhar (/bɐ.ˈɲaɾ/) and basear (/bɐ.ˈzjaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50552, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

banhar is recorded at frequency rank #26,977, classified as averb, pronounced /bɐ.ˈɲaɾ/. basear is at rank #23,575, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɐ.ˈzjaɾ/.

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 50552, this pair ranks #14,417 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of banhar vs basear

Shared letters: abr. Private to "banhar": hn. Private to "basear": es.

"banhar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "basear" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • banhar ← abnhar · bahnar · banahr · banharr · banhhar · banhra · bannhar · bbanhar
  • basear ← absear · baesar · basaer · basearr · basera · bassear · bbasear · bsaear

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "banhar" for "basear" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bɐ.ˈɲaɾ/ versus /bɐ.ˈzjaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "banhar" or "basear" show up more?
"basear" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,575 in our Portuguese list, against #26,977 for "banhar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "banhar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "basear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,417 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "banhar" and "basear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bailar vs banhar". 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 #14,417 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