clicarvscolocarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,855
“clicar” frequency rank
#696
“colocar” frequency rank
11551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clicar colocar
Definition gerar um clique (estalido) pôr num lugar

Where the eye mixes clicar and colocar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. clicar runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against colocar's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
clicar
7 ch
colocar

Visual trap between clicar and colocar

A purely visual mix-up. clicar (/kli.ˈkaɾ/) and colocar (/ku.lu.ˈkaɾ/) 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 11551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clicar is recorded at frequency rank #10,855, classified as averb, pronounced /kli.ˈkaɾ/. colocar is at rank #696, tagged as averb, pronounced /ku.lu.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 11551, this pair ranks #61,265 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of clicar vs colocar

Shared letters: aclr. Private to "clicar": i. Private to "colocar": o.

"clicar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "colocar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clicar ← cclicar · cilcar · clciar · cliacr · clicarr · cliccar · clicra · cllicar
  • colocar ← ccolocar · cloocar · colcoar · collocar · coloacr · colocarr · coloccar · colocra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clicar" for "colocar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kli.ˈkaɾ/ versus /ku.lu.ˈkaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "clicar" or "colocar"?
"colocar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #696 in our Portuguese list, against #10,855 for "clicar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "clicar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "colocar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,265 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clicar" and "colocar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clicar vs clonar". 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 #61,265 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