despejar vs despesa, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“despejar” is a verb and “despesa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,294
“despejar” frequency rank: #15,784
“despesa” frequency rank: 39078
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	despejar	despesa
Definition	jogar fora (um líquido, por exemplo) de seu recipiente	ato ou efeito de despender

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set despejar and despesa apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

despejar

7 ch

despesa

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: despejar is /dɨʃ.pɨ.ˈʒaɾ/ while despesa is /dɨʃ.ˈpe.zɐ/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39078, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

despejar is recorded at frequency rank #23,294, classified as averb, pronounced /dɨʃ.pɨ.ˈʒaɾ/. despesa is at rank #15,784, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɨʃ.ˈpe.zɐ/.

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 39078, this pair ranks #27,261 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of despejar vs despesa

Shared letters: adeps. Private to "despejar": jr. Private to "despesa": -.

"despejar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "despesa" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

despejar ← ddespejar · depsejar · desepjar · despeajr · despejarr · despejjar · despejra · despjear
despesa ← ddespesa · depsesa · desepsa · despeas · despessa · desppesa · despsea · desspesa

Frequency comparison

despejar#23,294

despesa#15,784

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "despejar" and "despesa" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "despejar" is a verb and "despesa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "despejar" or "despesa"?

"despesa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,784 in our Portuguese list, against #23,294 for "despejar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering despejar vs despesa

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “despejar”; for a noun, it's “despesa”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “despejar” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable