Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “deixar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,263
- “dear” frequency rank
- #309
- “deixar” frequency rank
- 20572
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | deixar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | querido; amado | soltar algo |
Where the eye mixes dear and deixar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dear and deixar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dear is /dɪɹ/ while deixar is /dɐj.ˈʃaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 20572, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #20,263, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪɹ/. deixar is at rank #309, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɐj.ˈʃaɾ/.
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 20572, this pair ranks #49,905 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs deixar
Shared letters: ader. Private to "dear": -. Private to "deixar": ix.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "deixar" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dear" and "deixar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dear" or "deixar"?
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 "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "deixar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #49,905 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "deixar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs dear". 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 #49,905 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.