delegarvsdelirarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,841
“delegar” frequency rank
#37,744
“delirar” frequency rank
74585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delegar delirar
Definition investir na faculdade de proceder em nome de outrem estar em delírio

Where the eye mixes delegar and delirar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. delegar and delirar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
delegar
7 ch
delirar

Visual trap between delegar and delirar

A purely visual mix-up. delegar (/dɨ.lɨ.ˈɡaɾ/) and delirar (/dɨ.li.ˈɾaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delegar is recorded at frequency rank #36,841, classified as averb, pronounced /dɨ.lɨ.ˈɡaɾ/. delirar is at rank #37,744, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɨ.li.ˈɾaɾ/.

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 74585, this pair ranks #2,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of delegar vs delirar

Shared letters: adelr. Private to "delegar": g. Private to "delirar": i.

"delegar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "delirar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delegar ← ddelegar · deelgar · deleagr · delegarr · deleggar · delegra · delgear · dellegar
  • delirar ← ddelirar · deilrar · deliarr · delirarr · delirra · delirrar · dellirar · delriar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "delegar" and "delirar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dɨ.lɨ.ˈɡaɾ/ versus /dɨ.li.ˈɾaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "delegar" or "delirar" show up more?
"delegar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,841 in our Portuguese list, against #37,744 for "delirar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "delegar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "delirar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delegar" and "delirar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "declinar vs delirar". 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 #2,491 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