delirarvsdevorarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,744
“delirar” frequency rank
#28,166
“devorar” frequency rank
65910
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delirar devorar
Definition estar em delírio destruir

Where the eye mixes delirar and devorar

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

7 ch
delirar
7 ch
devorar

Why the eye confuses delirar with devorar

A purely visual mix-up. delirar (/dɨ.li.ˈɾaɾ/) and devorar (/dɨ.vu.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 65910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delirar is recorded at frequency rank #37,744, classified as averb, pronounced /dɨ.li.ˈɾaɾ/. devorar is at rank #28,166, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɨ.vu.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 65910, this pair ranks #5,183 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of delirar vs devorar

Shared letters: ader. Private to "delirar": il. Private to "devorar": ov.

"delirar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "devorar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delirarddelirar · deilrar · deliarr · delirarr · delirra · delirrar · dellirar · delriar
  • devorarddevorar · deovrar · devoarr · devorarr · devorra · devorrar · devroar · devvorar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "delirar" and "devorar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dɨ.li.ˈɾaɾ/ versus /dɨ.vu.ˈɾaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "delirar" or "devorar"?
"devorar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,166 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "delirar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devorar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,183 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delirar" and "devorar" 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 #5,183 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