comparevscomparsaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: compare is a verb, comparsa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“compare” is a verb and “comparsa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,236
“compare” frequency rank
#40,485
“comparsa” frequency rank
57721
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature compare comparsa
Definition comparar cúmplice, parceiro

Letter map: compare vs comparsa

Shared letters muted; letters that set compare and comparsa apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
compare
8 ch
comparsa

Part-of-speech tell for compare / comparsa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: compare is averb and comparsaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

compare is recorded at frequency rank #17,236, classified as averb. comparsa is at rank #40,485, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kõ.ˈpaɾ.sɐ/.

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 57721, this pair ranks #9,168 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of compare vs comparsa

Shared letters: acmopr. Private to "compare": e. Private to "comparsa": s.

"compare" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "comparsa" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • compareccompare · cmopare · comapre · commpare · compaer · comparre · comppare · comprae
  • comparsaccomparsa · cmoparsa · comaprsa · commparsa · comparas · comparrsa · comparssa · compasra

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "compare" and "comparsa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "compare" is a verb and "comparsa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "compare" or "comparsa" show up more?
"compare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,236 in our Portuguese list, against #40,485 for "comparsa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "compare" vs "comparsa" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "compare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comparsa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,168 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "compare" and "comparsa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comparsa vs compasso". 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 #9,168 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