botarvsbrotarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,299
“botar” frequency rank
#31,268
“brotar” frequency rank
39567
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature botar brotar
Definition pôr aparecer, desenvolver

Where the eye mixes botar and brotar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
botar
6 ch
brotar

Visual trap between botar and brotar

A purely visual mix-up. botar (/bu.ˈtaɾ/) and brotar (/bɾu.ˈtaɾ/) 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 39567, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

botar is recorded at frequency rank #8,299, classified as averb, pronounced /bu.ˈtaɾ/. brotar is at rank #31,268, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɾu.ˈtaɾ/.

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 39567, this pair ranks #26,653 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of botar vs brotar

Shared letters: abort. Private to "botar": -. Private to "brotar": -.

"botar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "brotar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • botarbbotar · boatr · botarr · botra · bottar · btoar · obtar
  • brotarbbrotar · bortar · broatr · brotarr · brotra · brottar · brrotar · brtoar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "botar" for "brotar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bu.ˈtaɾ/ versus /bɾu.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "botar" or "brotar"?
"botar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,299 in our Portuguese list, against #31,268 for "brotar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "botar" and "brotar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "botar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brotar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,653 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "botar" and "brotar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "broa vs brotar". 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 #26,653 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