curvadovscurvarWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: curvado is a adjective, curvar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“curvado” is an adjective and “curvar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,248
“curvado” frequency rank
#35,088
“curvar” frequency rank
81336
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature curvado curvar
Definition que se curvou; curvo; arqueado, envergado arquear

Where the eye mixes curvado and curvar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
curvado
6 ch
curvar

Look-alike desk: curvado vs curvar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: curvado is /kuɾ.ˈva.du/ while curvar is /kuɾ.ˈvaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81336, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

curvado is recorded at frequency rank #46,248, classified as anadj, pronounced /kuɾ.ˈva.du/. curvar is at rank #35,088, tagged as averb, pronounced /kuɾ.ˈvaɾ/.

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 81336, this pair ranks #1,187 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of curvado vs curvar

Shared letters: acruv. Private to "curvado": do. Private to "curvar": -.

"curvado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "curvar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • curvadoccurvado · cruvado · curavdo · currvado · curvaddo · curvaod · curvdao · curvvado
  • curvarccurvar · cruvar · curavr · currvar · curvarr · curvra · curvvar · cuvrar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "curvado" and "curvar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "curvado" is an adjective and "curvar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "curvado" or "curvar" show up more?
"curvar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,088 in our Portuguese list, against #46,248 for "curvado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "curvado" and "curvar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "curvado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "curvar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,187 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "curvado" and "curvar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "curvado vs curvo". 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 #1,187 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