captarvscassarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,666
“captar” frequency rank
#34,183
“cassar” frequency rank
44849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature captar cassar
Definition atrair por captação impedir que produza efeitos, anular, revogar (direitos políticos, mandatos, licenças, etc.):

Where the eye mixes captar and cassar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
captar
6 ch
cassar

Why the eye confuses captar with cassar

A purely visual mix-up. captar (/kɐ.pˈtaɾ/) and cassar (/ka.ˈsaɾ/) 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 44849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

captar is recorded at frequency rank #10,666, classified as averb, pronounced /kɐ.pˈtaɾ/. cassar is at rank #34,183, tagged as averb, pronounced /ka.ˈsaɾ/.

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 44849, this pair ranks #20,576 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of captar vs cassar

Shared letters: acr. Private to "captar": pt. Private to "cassar": s.

"captar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cassar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • captaracptar · capatr · capptar · captarr · captra · capttar · catpar · ccaptar
  • cassaracssar · casar · casasr · cassarr · cassra · ccassar · csasar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "captar" for "cassar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.pˈtaɾ/ versus /ka.ˈsaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "captar" or "cassar"?
"captar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,666 in our Portuguese list, against #34,183 for "cassar". 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 "captar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cassar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,576 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "captar" and "cassar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cassada vs cassar". 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 #20,576 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