contagiarvscontatarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,849
“contagiar” frequency rank
#16,977
“contatar” frequency rank
59826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contagiar contatar
Definition propagar por meio de contágio (doença) ter contato:

Letter map: contagiar vs contatar

Shared letters muted; letters that set contagiar and contatar apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

9 ch
contagiar
8 ch
contatar

Pair insight - contagiar / contatar

contagiar and contatar are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contagiar is recorded at frequency rank #42,849, classified as averb, pronounced /kõⁿ.ta.ʒɪ.ˈaɾ/, /kõⁿ.ta.ˈʒjaɾ/, /kõⁿ.ta.ʒɪ.ˈa/, /kõⁿ.ta.ˈʒja/. contatar is at rank #16,977, tagged as averb.

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 59826, this pair ranks #7,987 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of contagiar vs contatar

Shared letters: acnort. Private to "contagiar": gi. Private to "contatar": -.

"contagiar" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC  ·  "contatar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contagiarccontagiar · cnotagiar · conatgiar · conntagiar · contagair · contaggiar · contagiarr · contagira
  • contatarccontatar · cnotatar · conattar · conntatar · contaatr · contatarr · contatra · contattar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "contagiar" and "contatar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "contagiar" or "contatar" show up more?
"contatar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,977 in our Portuguese list, against #42,849 for "contagiar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "contagiar" and "contatar".

  • Full dictionary entry for "contagiar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contatar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,987 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contagiar" and "contatar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "consagrar vs contagiar". 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 #7,987 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