desapontarvsdespontarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,862
“desapontar” frequency rank
#41,943
“despontar” frequency rank
90805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desapontar despontar
Definition causar desapontamento a quebrar ou remover a ponta

Letter map: desapontar vs despontar

Shared letters muted; letters that set desapontar and despontar apart highlighted. Shared run: 9. desapontar runs 10 letters (CVCVCVCCVC) against despontar's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
desapontar
9 ch
despontar

Spelling & dictionary notes on desapontar vs despontar

desapontar and despontar are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desapontar is recorded at frequency rank #48,862, classified as averb, pronounced /dɨ.zɐ.põ.ˈtaɾ/. despontar is at rank #41,943, tagged as averb.

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 90805, this pair ranks #242 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of desapontar vs despontar

Shared letters: adenoprst. Private to "desapontar": -. Private to "despontar": -.

"desapontar" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVC  ·  "despontar" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desapontar ← ddesapontar · deaspontar · desaopntar · desapnotar · desaponatr · desaponntar · desapontarr · desapontra
  • despontar ← ddespontar · depsontar · desopntar · despnotar · desponatr · desponntar · despontarr · despontra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "desapontar" for "despontar" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "desapontar" vs "despontar" - which ranks higher?
"despontar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,943 in our Portuguese list, against #48,862 for "desapontar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "desapontar" and "despontar".

  • Full dictionary entry for "desapontar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "despontar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #242 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desapontar" and "despontar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "despistar vs despontar". 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 #242 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