desatarvsdevagarConfusable pair

Quick tell: desatar is a verb, devagar is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“desatar” is a verb and “devagar” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,865
“desatar” frequency rank
#5,520
“devagar” frequency rank
54385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desatar devagar
Definition desprender em baixa velocidade

Where the eye mixes desatar and devagar

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

7 ch
desatar
7 ch
devagar

Look-alike desk: desatar vs devagar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desatar is /dɨ.zɐ.ˈtaɾ/ while devagar is /de.va.ˈgaɹ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desatar is recorded at frequency rank #48,865, classified as averb, pronounced /dɨ.zɐ.ˈtaɾ/. devagar is at rank #5,520, tagged as anadv, pronounced /de.va.ˈgaɹ/.

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 54385, this pair ranks #11,306 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of desatar vs devagar

Shared letters: ader. Private to "desatar": st. Private to "devagar": gv.

"desatar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "devagar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desatarddesatar · deastar · desaatr · desatarr · desatra · desattar · dessatar · destaar
  • devagarddevagar · deavgar · devaagr · devagarr · devaggar · devagra · devgaar · devvagar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "desatar" and "devagar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "desatar" is a verb and "devagar" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "desatar" or "devagar" show up more?
"devagar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,520 in our Portuguese list, against #48,865 for "desatar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "desatar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devagar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,306 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desatar" and "devagar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desatar vs devastar". 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 #11,306 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