cercado vs cercar, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cercado” is an adjective and “cercar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,164
“cercado” frequency rank: #25,230
“cercar” frequency rank: 33394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cercado	cercar
Definition	rodeado ou contornado por uma barreira	pôr cerco a, sitiar

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cercado and cercar apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

cercado

6 ch

cercar

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cercado is /sɨɾ.ˈka.du/ while cercar is /sɨɾ.ˈkaɾ/. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cercado is recorded at frequency rank #8,164, classified as anadj, pronounced /sɨɾ.ˈka.du/. cercar is at rank #25,230, tagged as averb, pronounced /sɨɾ.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 33394, this pair ranks #34,148 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cercado vs cercar

Shared letters: acer. Private to "cercado": do. Private to "cercar": -.

"cercado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "cercar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

cercado ← ccercado · cecrado · ceracdo · cercaddo · cercaod · cerccado · cercdao · cerrcado
cercar ← ccercar · cecrar · ceracr · cercarr · cerccar · cercra · cerrcar · crecar

Frequency comparison

cercado#8,164

cercar#25,230

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cercado" and "cercar" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cercado" is an adjective and "cercar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cercado" or "cercar"?

"cercado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,164 in our Portuguese list, against #25,230 for "cercar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cercado vs cercar

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “cercado”; for a verb, it's “cercar”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cercado” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable