Which to use
“contest” is a noun and “contestar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,803
- “contest” frequency rank
- #20,834
- “contestar” frequency rank
- 48637
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contest | contestar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | competição, concurso | contradizer, refutar |
Letter map: contest vs contestar
Shared letters muted; letters that set contest and contestar apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. contest runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against contestar's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - contest and contestar
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: contest is anoun and contestaraverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “contest” sits inside “contestar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contest is recorded at frequency rank #27,803, classified as anoun. contestar is at rank #20,834, tagged as averb, pronounced /kõ.tɨʃ.ˈtaɾ/.
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 48637, this pair ranks #16,530 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of contest vs contestar
Shared letters: cenost. Private to "contest": -. Private to "contestar": ar.
"contest" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "contestar" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "contest" and "contestar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "contest" or "contestar"?
What to do next
Pair "contest" vs "contestar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "contest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contestar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,530 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contest" and "contestar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "concertar vs contestar". 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 #16,530 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.