cometervscompetirTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,286
“cometer” frequency rank
#7,124
“competir” frequency rank
12410
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cometer competir
Definition praticar ser comparado com os semelhantes em determinada modalidade de ação.

Where the eye mixes cometer and competir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
cometer
8 ch
competir

Look-alike desk: cometer vs competir

A purely visual mix-up. cometer (/ku.mɨ.ˈteɾ/) and competir (/kõ.pɨ.ˈtiɾ/) 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 12410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cometer is recorded at frequency rank #5,286, classified as averb, pronounced /ku.mɨ.ˈteɾ/. competir is at rank #7,124, tagged as averb, pronounced /kõ.pɨ.ˈtiɾ/.

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 12410, this pair ranks #60,186 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cometer vs competir

Shared letters: cemort. Private to "cometer": -. Private to "competir": ip.

"cometer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "competir" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cometerccometer · cmoeter · coemter · comeetr · cometerr · cometre · cometter · commeter
  • competirccompetir · cmopetir · comeptir · commpetir · compeitr · competirr · competri · compettir

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cometer" and "competir" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ku.mɨ.ˈteɾ/ versus /kõ.pɨ.ˈtiɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cometer" vs "competir" - which ranks higher?
"cometer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,286 in our Portuguese list, against #7,124 for "competir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cometer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "competir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,186 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cometer" and "competir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cateter vs cometer". 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 #60,186 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