depilaçãovsdestilaçãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,115
“depilação” frequency rank
#41,946
“destilação” frequency rank
61061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature depilação destilação
Definition ação ou efeito de depilar ato ou efeito de destilar

Where the eye mixes depilação and destilação

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. depilação runs 9 letters (CVCVCVCVV) against destilação's 10 (CVCCVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
depilação
10 ch
destilação

Visual trap between depilação and destilação

A purely visual mix-up. depilação (/dɨ.pi.lɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and destilação (/dɨʃ.ti.lɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

depilação is recorded at frequency rank #19,115, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɨ.pi.lɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. destilação is at rank #41,946, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɨʃ.ti.lɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 61061, this pair ranks #7,333 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of depilação vs destilação

Shared letters: adeiloãç. Private to "depilação": p. Private to "destilação": st.

"depilação" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV  ·  "destilação" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "depilação" and "destilação" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/dɨ.pi.lɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ versus /dɨʃ.ti.lɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "depilação" or "destilação" show up more?
"depilação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,115 in our Portuguese list, against #41,946 for "destilação". 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 "depilação" and "destilação" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "depilação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "destilação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,333 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "depilação" and "destilação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desolação vs destilação". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #7,333 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