desejadavsdesejarTell them apart

Quick tell: desejada is a adjective, desejar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“desejada” is an adjective and “desejar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,992
“desejada” frequency rank
#3,892
“desejar” frequency rank
20884
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature desejada desejar
Definition feminino de desejado querer realizar algo

Where the eye mixes desejada and desejar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. desejada runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against desejar's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
desejada
7 ch
desejar

Visual trap between desejada and desejar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desejada is /de.zeˈʒa.dɐ/ while desejar is /dɨ.zɨ.ˈʒaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20884, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

desejada is recorded at frequency rank #16,992, classified as anadj, pronounced /de.zeˈʒa.dɐ/. desejar is at rank #3,892, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɨ.zɨ.ˈʒaɾ/.

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 20884, this pair ranks #49,524 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of desejada vs desejar

Shared letters: adejs. Private to "desejada": -. Private to "desejar": r.

"desejada" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "desejar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • desejada ← ddesejada · deesjada · deseajda · desejaad · desejadda · desejdaa · desejjada · desjeada
  • desejar ← ddesejar · deesjar · deseajr · desejarr · desejjar · desejra · desjear · dessejar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "desejada" and "desejar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "desejada" is an adjective and "desejar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "desejada" or "desejar"?
"desejar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,892 in our Portuguese list, against #16,992 for "desejada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "desejada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desejar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,524 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "desejada" and "desejar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desejada vs despejada". 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 #49,524 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